


Mine

by nightowl1899



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alpha Ava, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Attempt at Humor, Characters are a bit OOC, Doctor Sara, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Human Sara, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24751321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightowl1899/pseuds/nightowl1899
Summary: “Am I seriously gonna go over there? They could be a serial killer or something.” As if on cue, the banging starts up again. Obnoxiously loud now that Sara was standing so close to the source. Annoyance winning over fear, she starts towards the house, heading for what looked like an open garage.“This is it. This is how I die. I’m gonna get abducted and live chained to some lunatic’s basement.” Sara mutters out as she gets closer and closer to the garage.
Relationships: Nate Heywood/Amaya Jiwe, Nora Darhk/Ray Palmer, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 206
Kudos: 667





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first crack at writing something for this pairing. Let me know what you think so far..

The porch creaks as the weight of the heavy box lands on the old wood. Sara looks up and releases a heavy sigh as she takes the house in, taking stock of the repairs that would need to be done. The overall structure was fine, but the house was old and even she had to admit it looked straight out of a horror movie at night. Of course, if the circumstances had been different, she would have purchased a newer house. 

This house was the last thing she had left of her family. An inheritance that should have gone to her sister, Laurel. Had she not died with the rest of her family. 

It’s been a little over three months now since they died. 

It had been some time since the whole family had been together and her father had managed to convince everyone to go on a camping trip. A trip her mother opposed at first, the thought of spending the weekend in the forest not being the most appealing thing, but eventually agreed to at the thought of having both of her children in the same place for once. Quentin used to take her and Laurel every summer. It was something they both genuinely loved until Laurel and eventually Sara had been too busy with college and then work. 

She and Laurel had been busy. Too busy to visit and neither had the time but their father had spent weeks trying and had guilted them enough to take some admittedly, much needed time off. Sara had flown in from Seattle and had been the last to arrive. She had a last minute meeting and had to push her flight to a later one. The plan was for Laurel and her parents to pick her up at the airport and for all of them to drive out together but they never made it. 

She had been waiting at the airport for nearly an hour before she got the call that changed her entire life. A truck driver had run a red light and completely totaled her parents car. The car that held her parents and her sister was crushed beyond recognition and all three of them had died on impact. Her entire family, her world, gone. 

To say she was surprised to have inherited a house in the middle of a forest was an understatement. As far as Sara knew, her father hadn’t mentioned their family ever having roots or even knowing anyone from this part of Canada. She knew nothing and no one here but didn’t have the heart to sell the only thing she had left of her family. Her parents death had left her with enough money than she knew what to do with and her job had gotten increasingly harder to do. She just couldn’t handle seeing patients and saving lives when she hadn’t been able to save the lives of those who mattered most to her. She didn’t have anything left to stay for in America. Sara didn’t have any close family left and it had been hard to live in the city she used to live in with her sister. She found out just how much when she burst out into sobs one day in Laurel’s favorite coffee shop. The choice to leave had been an easy one.

Sara looked around the property she had just inherited, taking in the vast forest that surrounded her parent’s-her house now. Everywhere she looked there were trees. So far, she hadn’t run into anyone since driving up to the house. She spotted a town a ways back but it was far enough away that she decided to get a new car. She wasn’t sure how well her Prius would hold up so she traded it in for a dark red Ford pickup. Laurel would’ve had words for that choice.

“It had to be in the middle of the goddamned forest.” Sara mutters with a sigh as she moves to unlock the door. “I swear I’ve seen at least five horror movies that started like this.” Cursing herself for deciding against hiring mover, Sara starts lugging boxes through the door and into her living room, a space she had deemed big enough to dump everything she brought until she could sort though everything. 

Sara runs out to her car, grabs the last box from the front seat and speed walks back into the house, shutting the door behind her. It was getting dark and she was admittedly a little scared. This of course would be vehemently denied if anyone asked. Not that she knew anyone here.

She stands in her living room, taking in the boxes covering a good portion of the large space, “Nope. No way.” and turns to walk up the stairs and into her room, making the executive decision to start unpacking in the morning.

…

A loud banging abruptly wakes Sara from her slumber. The sound seeming to have come from outside. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Sara grunts, rolling over, grabbing a pillow and placing it over her head, opting to ignore the sound.

The loud banging stops for a few minutes and just as she is about to slip back into sleep, it starts again. This happens a few times before a particularly loud bang drives Sara out of bed. A quick glance at the clock on her bedside table reveals that it is in fact just after midnight.

“That’s it.” She changes into a pair of jeans, keeping the shirt she already had on and starts putting on the boots she had been wearing earlier in the morning. She grabs her phone from the side table and walks down the stairs, grabbing her coat on the way out the door and into the forest where the loud banging continues to sound.

Sara had been walking for a good ten minutes, using her phone as a flashlight and her annoyance as fuel to ignore the rational voice in her head debating whether or not she should turn back when she spots a house a little ways from where she was standing. A light was on and Sara marches on before stopping abruptly.

“Am I seriously gonna go over there? They could be a serial killer or something.” As if on cue, the banging starts up again. Obnoxiously loud now that Sara was standing so close to the source. Annoyance winning over fear, she starts towards the house, heading for what looked like an open garage.

“This is it. This is how I die. I’m gonna get abducted and live chained to some lunatic’s basement.” Sara mutters out as she gets closer and closer to the garage. 

She’s a few feet from the open garage when a particularly loud bang resonates through the air. 

“Nope. Nope nope nope nope not today.” She chants repeatedly under her breath as she turns to walk away.

“Hello?” Sara stops in her tracks as voice calls out from inside the garage. “Who’s there?”

For a second, she considers making a break for the trees but before she can take a step, a blonde woman walks out from the open garage.

Sara takes in the tall form now in front of her. Eyes involuntarily checking out the admittedly attractive stranger. Her blonde hair was tucked back into a messy ponytail, strong arms covered with tattoos were shown off with the tank top she was wearing and the stranger must have been doing some work considering the light layer of sweat that made her skin glisten just a little.

A cough broke Sara’s stare and a light redness colored her cheeks at the thought of obviously being caught staring.

“Can I help you?” The stranger before her asks. Sara couldn’t help but notice how raspy her voice sounds. It was soft and welcoming. She felt like she could listen to that voice for years. A strange thought considering she didn’t even know this woman.

“What?” Was the only response Sara could come up with, thrown by the woman who was now standing barely a foot away.

“I said can I help you?” The stranger asks. “Are you lost or something?” Ava had left her garage thinking it was one of her pack members and had admittedly been surprised to see the beautiful woman in nervously standing in front of her.

Sara shifts her weight from one foot to another. “No. I’m not lost.” Maybe coming out here wasn’t such a good idea.

“Okay. Did you need something? It’s not safe to be out here this late.” The blonde says and Sara couldn’t help but feel like it sounded almost like a warning.

“I uh, I’m Sara. I just moved here. I was sleeping but then I heard a noise.” She curses herself as her voice comes out shakier than she wanted.

“So you decided to walk through the forest past midnight?” The blonde asks, an amused smile starting to form. Sara noticed her eyes just then. They were a beautiful blue and they almost seemed to shine in the darkness.

“When you put it like that it sounds dumb.” Her words come out in a mumble and she could swear the stranger’s smile broadens.

“I’m Ava.” The stranger, Ava, steps closer and reaches out a hand. Sara could swear she felt a something as soon as her hand touched this woman’s. A quiet gasp escapes Ava’s lips. Her hand tightens around Sara’s and an expression Sara couldn’t decipher crosses her face. 

Ava was in shock. The instant her hand touched Sara’s she knew she had just found her mate. It seemed as if every sense Ava had was trained on her. It was overwhelming in the best way possible. She felt how soft Sara’s hand felt in her own and now that she was closer, she noticed how Sara smelled remarkably of vanilla and something else. It was warm and cozy and she couldn’t place it but she was hooked. Her scent was intoxicating and one hundred percent, without a doubt, human. “That noise you heard was probably me. I’m fixing something.” Ava says, dropping her hand and seemingly shaking herself out of whatever trance she was in. The last thing she wanted was to scare the other woman. “I didn’t think anyone lived anywhere near. I’ll stop so you can get some sleep.” 

“Thank you. I just got here this afternoon. I live over there, I think.” Sara gestures towards some trees. A feeling of dread settles in her stomach as she comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t actually know exactly how to get home. It was really dark and now that she had found the source of her sleeplessness and the annoyance had faded, she realizes just how stupid it was to walk through the woods this late.

“You think?” Ava prods.

“I mean, I kinda just started following the noise.” The more she said, the stupider she felt about leaving her house in the first place. It was the middle of the night and she left her house to wander through the forest. Alone. Had her sister been alive, Sara would be hunched over in pain, courtesy of a slap to the back of the head.

“What does your house look like?” 

“It’s big and old.” Sara replies with a sigh. Ava can’t help but smile at her exasperated tone. There weren’t a lot of houses in this part of the forest and the one’s that were here all had one thing in common. They were all old. “I might be able to help you find it. I can take you if you want?” 

Sara shakes her head, not wanting to inconvenience the other woman. Even though she and her loud banging were the reason she was here in the first place. “Oh no that’s okay. You can just point me in the right direction and I can find my way.” 

Ava didn’t particularly like the thought of her mate walking through the forest alone. Granted, she was probably the most dangerous thing Sara could have ran into, the forest was vast and it was cold and it would be extremely easy for her o get lost. That, and she knew some of her pack members liked running through the forest at night. “Listen, It’s really late and you’re new here. It’s really easy to get lost.”

“I don’t want to be a bother.” Sara insists, surprised at how concerned the other woman was for her well being. Maybe people were nicer in Canada. That or she was about to be serial killed.

“You’re not. Besides, I finally have a neighbor. I’d hate for you to get eaten by bears or something.” Ava bites her lip to keep from laughing as the other woman’s eyes widen in fear. “Bears?!”

“No I’m just kidding.” The taller woman chuckles as Sara gifts her with a glare. “There are some wolves but they’ll leave you alone.” Ava says with almost absolute certainty. Knowing what she knows now, no one would hurt Sara, she’d make sure of it.

“Wolves. I didn’t know there were wolves.” Sara turns to look towards the forest and then back at the woman she just met. Ava tilts her head towards the forest, a question in her eyes. Sara contemplates her options. Option one: Get lost and possibly get eaten by wolves or die of hypothermia, or Option two: Go with the gorgeous kind of stranger she just met and maybe get axe murdered. There wasn’t an axe but Ava looked plenty strong enough to pin her to a tree or something. They were in the middle of nowhere too so no one would her her scream.

Before Sara’s thoughts could go to other activities that would require screaming and being pinned to a tree by the attractive woman, Ava clears her throat. 

“So?” Ava asks, looking at Sara with an intensity the smaller woman had never seen, willing her to say yes. Almost as if sensing Sara’s hesitance, Ava moves closer. She was so close she could feel Sara’s warmth. Their height difference showing as Sara was having to tilt her head up a little to be able to look at the other woman. “Look, I know we just met and this is weird but I can’t let anything happen to you so would you please just let me help you?”

The other woman spoke with sincerity and seriousness, her blue eyes never leaving Sara’s. For some reason, Sara trusted the woman. That and the close proximity and intense stare Ava was giving her was making her blush and feel warm all over. Option two it is.

“Okay.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been meaning to update this but had trouble finding time to write. Anyways, here's the next one. Tell me what you guys think.

Chapter 2

“So, is this your house?” Ava gestures towards a house that was definitely not Sara’s. They had been walking for the better part of an hour and this was the third house Ava had shown her. Not that Ava had anything to go on really. Sara’s instructions of “over there, I think” or “that tree looks familiar” was probably no help at all.

Sara sighs. “Nope.” It was dark, she was getting really cold and quite frankly, the woods were starting to freak her out a little.

“Are you sure it wasn’t the last one?” 

“Yes I’m sure, I know my house.” 

“Well, you did just move.” Ava gets a glare for that one. She sees Sara suppress a shiver and feels a tinge of worry. She had gotten herself distracted by the woman and had forgotten that she was in fact human and didn’t have the biology that made her immune to the cold like Ava was. Wandering the forest with Sara had been fun. She had learned that her mate was quite chatty and they had spent the past hour exchanging stories about themselves.

So far she had learned that Sara’s last name was Lance and she was a doctor, a cardiothoracic surgeon who worked at some prestigious hospital in Seattle. She was allergic to shellfish (Ava had gotten a story about how Sara had almost died after an ex boyfriend forgot to tell her there was crab in something she ate and she remembered to punch said ex should she meet him), and she had unsuccessfully played Peter Pan in a school play. 

Sara in turn learned about Ava. How she liked to fix anything and everything she got her hands on and the only work she did was doing some repairs for the odd person here or there. Of course, Ava couldn’t tell her that her time was often spent leading a pack of werewolves. She wasn’t stupid.

Sara was actively shivering now, her coat doing almost nothing as the night grew colder. “You’re cold.” Ava wanted to hit herself for that one. Of course she’s cold.

“I’m f-fine.” 

“You’re shivering.” Sara had her arms around her middle and Ava had to actively resist the urge to take the smaller woman in her arms.

“It’s j-just a little ch-chilly. Nothing I c-can’t handle.” Ava was pretty sure Sara would not be able to handle the cold for much longer.

“We can go back to my place and look again in a couple of hours when the sun’s up.” Ava’s house was warm and right now, that’s what her mate needed. She was looking a lot paler than she did an hour ago and Ava was really starting to worry. Sara had just moved here and was unlikely to be used to the cold weather.

Ava was about to bring this up but Sara was sticking to her guns. “N-no r-really. L-let’s k-keep l-looking.” 

It was at that moment that Ava learned a new fact about her mate. She was quite possibly the most stubborn person on the planet.

“Your lips are turning blue.” Ava pointed out, hands at her sides clenching into fists, trying to hold herself back from pulling her clearly near hypothermic mate into her. Sara hardly knew her and Ava doubted that she would be okay with being cuddled up to a virtual stranger for warmth. She needed to be gentle with Sara, take things slow.

“They are not.” 

“I thought you were a doctor. Your have to know you’re gonna get sick if you stay out here for longer.” Ava tried to reason but Sara simply glared back. 

“I d-d-don’t g-get sick.” Sara stated and Ava looked back at her incredulously. Was Sara seriously gonna stay out here?

“Screw slow.” Ava muttered under her breath. Sara was gonna get sick if she didn’t get warm soon and Ava would be damned if she let anything bad happen to her mate just hours after she found her. “Listen, you are going to go back to my house and get warm if I have to sling you over my shoulder and carry you there myself.” Ava said and the look Sara sent her way would have probably scared her had she not resembled Casper the friendly ghost. She was looking dangerously pale and Ava was past worried and cruising into mild panic.

“Excuse m-me? Who d-d-do you th-think you-Oh my god! Put me down!” Sara’s argument was cut off as Ava did exactly as she had threatened and picked the smaller woman up and slung her over her shoulder, starting to walk back in the direction of her house.

“No. You’re being ridiculous and- Hey stop that! You’re gonna hurt yourself.” Sara had taken to hitting her back but had stopped and resigned herself to her fate as soon as she realized it wasn’t fazing Ava one bit. “Jesus, what are you made of stone?” Ava remained silent, determined to get Sara back to her place and warm.

Sara wasn’t enjoying being picked up and carried like a child. She was a doctor, a highly trained surgeon and she could handle herself for god’s sake. She did however, after a while, notice that the way Ava was carrying her gave her a pretty great view of the other woman’s uhm- behind. It’s a good one too, Sara thought and flushed, immediately looking up and diverting her attention to a tree and not Ava’s admittedly nice ass. 

Ava shifted her a little and Sara’s hand immediately reached back to grab Ava’s arm, frightened that she would fall. “Relax, I’m not gonna drop you.” Ava says. 

“You can put me down now. I won’t like, run away or anything.” Sara says. Now that she’d had time to think, looking in the morning or like, in a couple hours when the sun was up did sound like a better idea than walking around in the middle of the night.

“No this is faster. We can go through the woods quicker like this.” Ava says. Sara was about to argue the logic of how one would be able to move faster with another person over their shoulder when she starts to notice just how fast Ava was moving. It was like she wasn’t fazed by anything that was in the way. Come to think of it, they had passed a fallen tree while they were looking for Sara’s house and Sara had struggled to go over it. But now, on the way back, Ava climbed over the fallen tree with ease. Even with Sara over her shoulder. Maybe she works out Sara thought. 

Ava shifts her again and Sara realizes that her hand was still very much on Ava’s arm. Her very toned arm and nope, Sara wasn’t even gonna start to think about Ava’s arms. She was however, not in a rush to let go of said arm. Just then, a thought popped into Sara’s head. Here she was, bundled up in her coat, about to turn into a popsicle and Ava was wearing a tank top. She was really warm too. Sara could feel her. Through her arm. That and her muscles.

“Aren’t you cold? I mean, you’re not wearing anything warm.” Sara asks, shaking herself from her apparent obsession for Ava’s arms.

“No, I’m used to it.” Ava swallowed a lump in her throat. She didn’t have use for more clothing than what she was wearing now and had forgotten that to a human, it would be weird to be walking around in these temperatures wearing jeans and a tank top.

“Okay.” Sara spots Ava’s house and taps the woman on her lower back. “I see your place. You can put me down now.”

Ava was enjoying carrying Sara, the woman was smaller than her and she could tell that her close proximity to Ava had warmed her up a bit. Nevertheless, she gently set her mate down, instantly missing her warmth as she did. Sara steps back, brushing herself off and Ava did not think that simply a foot of distance would bother her, but it did.

They walk towards Ava’s porch and Sara takes time to look at the house. It was relatively big and had a cabin-like feel to it. There was a wrap around porch and Sara could see a large shed just behind the property.

“Alright. Let’s get you warmed up.” Ava opens the door and they step inside. She leads her towards the living room, walking down to her fireplace and getting to work on setting a fire. Sara made herself comfortable on the couch and took a look around. She could spot the kitchen on her left and a hallway that she presumed would lead to more rooms. Ava’s house was warm and it looked unbelievably cozy. The fireplace mantle was filled with pictures of Ava and other people she assumed were friends and family. 

Silence stretches across the room and Ava starts shifting wood around, using this time to settle herself and relax. She had started the night tinkering in her workroom and now, not hours later, her mate was sitting on her couch nervously fiddling with the ends of the throw blanket draped across the back of the couch. 

Unbeknownst to Ava, Sara had been watching her. Ava was quite possibly the most intriguing person Sara had met. There was something about her that was pulling Sara in. She found herself wanting to be near her and if Sara was being honest, she wasn’t even upset about not being able to get home. She had a deep unexplainable feeling of trust for the other woman that should have made her uncomfortable since she had just met her, but instead she felt something she had not felt since her family had died; safe. The thought made her feel unsettled.

Ava stole a look behind her and notices the smaller blonde looking a little uncomfortable. Maybe she’s hungry. Should I offer her food? She’s probably still cold. Ava thought. 

It was then that Ava remembered why she had met Sara in the first place. She had woken her up. In the middle of the night. 

She’s probably exhausted! Ava wanted to hit herself. She had spent the night-morning? dragging her mate through the forest and having her nearly freeze to death. Add the fact that she had woken her up after what must have been exhausting day of moving and Ava was sure her mother would have a fit if she ever found out about this. She would. Her mother had an undeniable ability to know everything almost as soon as it happened. It was a wonder she wasn’t busting her front door open and handing Sara a collection of wedding binders.

Ava got up and walked towards the couch, taking the blanket and draping it around Sara’s shoulders.

“Thanks.” Sara says, smiling and tugging the blanket tighter against herself.

“You must be tired.” Ava says, holding her hand out. “It’s gonna be a few hours before the sun’s up. You can take my room.” 

Sara shakes her head, grabbing the hand in front of her and letting Ava pull her up. “Oh no, I can just wait. I don’t wanna bother you more than I already have.” She takes note of how close Ava was to her now. She was between the couch and Ava and the taller woman made no move to step back.

“You could never be a bother.” Ava says in a whisper. She was looking at Sara with an intensity that made the other woman feel warm all over and Sara was suddenly aware of just how close she was to Ava. Ava’s hand slides down to Sara’s forearm and for a moment she forgets how to breathe. The effect Ava had on her was both amazing and completely terrifying. She had only just met the woman for god’s sake. 

Ava hears the hitch in the smaller woman’s breath and takes a step back, letting go of the her arm and giving her space. She probably thought Ava was a creep and the last thing she wanted was for Sara to be uncomfortable or god forbid scared of her. “I-uh, technically I’m the reason you’re even here this late so it’s the least I can do.”

“Really I’m fi-”

“Please.” Ava cuts Sara off. 

If Sara was being honest, she was exhausted. The move was not easy and she had spent hours lugging boxes into her house and the lack of sleep was catching up with her. “Yeah, okay. If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” Ava says with a small smile. She leads Sara down the hallway and into her room, standing near the doorway as the the shorter blonde looks around. It wasn’t anything special. There was a queen sized bed in the middle of the room with nightstands on each side. There was a window to the left of the bed that filtered light into the room. A dresser was on the opposite wall and a large rug was positioned a the foot of the bed. 

Sara strips off her coat and places it on top of the bed. 

“I’ll get you something more comfortable to wear.” Ava walks towards the dresser and takes a shirt and a pair of sweatpants and hands them to Sara. “They might be a bit big on you.”

“They’re perfect. Thanks.” Sara says with a smile.

Ava smiles back and Sara stands there for a second before looking down at the clothes in her hand and back at Ava. 

“Oh, right! I’ll just-I’m gonna go get you some more blankets.” A light blush colors the taller woman’s cheeks and she walks out of the room, closing the door behind her and heading towards the closet at the end of the hall. Ava starts loading her arms with thick blankets. She hardly ever slept with a blanket since her body ran hot and she had virtually no need for them but she knew Sara would need them. 

She makes her way back, knocking thrice and coming in after hearing muffled ‘come in’. Sara was standing at the foot of the bed folding her clothes and neatly setting them on top of the dresser. The clothes she was wearing were over-sized on Ava and being shorter, Sara was practically drowning in them. The sight was adorable and Ava chastised herself for feeling a possessive satisfaction at her seeing her mate in her clothes. 

“Woah.” Sara mutters out as she notices the mound of blankets in Ava’s arms. 

“Is it not enough? I can get more if you want.” 

“No no this is okay. Really.” Ava nods and sets the pile of blankets on the bed.

A yawn escapes Sara’s lips and Ava is reminded of how late it was. “I’m going to let you get some sleep. I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” Ava walks towards the door.

“Goodnight.” Sara says.

“Goodnight, Sara.” Ava gives her slight nod before heading out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Sara makes herself comfortable on the bed, burying herself in the blankets Ava had brought her. The blankets smelled a lot like Ava and for some reason it made her feel more comfortable than she already was. That seemed to be a reoccurring feeling she was having around the other woman. She had been here for less than a day and already she seems to have found herself in a situation; one she didn’t hate. She shakes herself out of her own thoughts and lets herself fall into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thought I'd post this today. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! I hope you guys like this one.

Chapter 3

Ava had woken up feeling uneasy. She had slept on the couch, having given her room to Sara. She didn’t mind but had found herself resisting the urge to sit outside the door of her room just to watch over her. It was an instinctual thing. Her kind were protective of their mates and seeing as she had just found hers and Sara was human, that protective instinct was multiplied tenfold. Logically, she knew Sara was fine, she was sleeping in her room for god’s sake, but she couldn’t help how she felt.

Ava glanced at the clock she had on top of the fireplace mantle. 9:57 am. It had only been a few hours since they had gotten back. Their search for Sara’s house had been a bust but she wasn’t too sad about it seeing as the other woman was now sleeping in her room. Wearing her clothes. Ava was practically preening at the thought.

She hadn’t gotten much sleep though. The sheer knowledge that Sara was in the other room was enough to keep her up. Ava hadn’t put much thought into the things her mother had told her about mates. She knew that it was rare to find one’s mate and not everyone did. In her pack, she only knew of two couples who were mated. Her parents and her friends, Nate and Amaya. The latter going through quite the ordeal to be together. Ava had resigned herself to the thought that she wouldn’t find hers, or maybe she just didn’t have one. Boy did Sara catch her off guard.

Being near Sara made her feel things she had never felt before; and being in contact with her, touching her made Ava think and feel things that she should definitely not be thinking of right now. Ava didn’t know just how much she would crave to be near her mate at all times until she found her. It was now that she understood why she almost never saw Amaya and Nate away from each other. She had thought that it was just because their relationship was relatively new but now she could understand. Being even just a few doors away from Sara was putting her on edge; it was almost painful. 

She also had to figure out the whole human thing. How was she supposed to tell Sara? “Hey, I know we just met but I’m a werewolf and the universe decided to make you my mate so..” Ava whispered into the air, sighing and burying her face into the couch cushions. 

Telling Sara about her kind scared her more than she liked to admit but she would have to do it soon. If she learned anything from her parents and Nate’s inability to keep his mouth shut, she wouldn’t be able to keep away from Sara. She could barely stand to sleep in another room. How was she supposed to explain to Sara why she would need to be close or at least know where she was when they were apart? 

“She’d probably think you’re a stalker and run away.” Ava sighs heavily, reaching for her phone that was on the coffee table in front of the couch. She had sent Amaya a text a few hours ago asking to find the house Sara moved into, knowing it couldn’t have been far seeing as Sara had walked here. 

_Ava: I need you to find something for me (1:52 am)_

_Amaya: A girlfriend? I knew you’d break (1:52 am)_

_Amaya: Give me an hour (1:52 am)_

_Ava: What? No! (1:53 am)_

_Ava: A house. Newly moved into. Probably not too far from mine (1:53 am)_

_Amaya: It’s 2am (1:54 am)_

_Ava: It’s important (1:54 am)_

_Amaya: On it (1:54 am)_

_Amaya: Found it (3:22 am)_

Amaya’s last message came with a picture of a house and Ava was relieved to know she knew where it was and that it was relatively close to her own. She also realized why she and Sara had not found it; they had been looking in the wrong direction. She really needed to show Sara around. 

Ava pulls herself up from the couch, heading for her room to wake Sara up. It was nearly 11 am and she knew Sara would want to go home. 

Ava lightly knocks of the door before opening it, her gaze falling on a sleeping Sara. A smile grew on her face as she took in the sight in front of her. Sara was curled in on herself and bundled tightly in the many blankets Ava had given her a few hours back. Her head was the only part of her peaking through the blankets and her blonde hair was spread out over the pillows. 

Ava walked into the room and upon closer inspection, noticed Sara trembling. Smile falling off her face, Ava sat on the bed beside a sleeping Sara, reaching out to touch her forehead. 

“Damn it.” Ava curses as she feels how warm Sara was. She had been afraid that this would happen, knew that staying out would not be good for Sara and she had been right.

Ava moves to pull her hand back but stops when Sara seemed to move closer, running her hand through blonde locks instead. Sara was shivering and Ava’s heart clenched with worry. The mound of blankets wrapped around her didn’t seem to be doing anything. Moreover, Ava wasn’t prepared for this. She could count the times she had gotten sick in her entire life on one hand and therefore didn’t know what to do. 

Ava did the only thing she could think of and called her mother.

After receiving a lengthy scolding from her mother about not telling her as soon as she found Sara and letting her mate sit in the cold for so long, making Ava feel like she was twelve again instead of her twenty-eight year old self, her mother came barging through her front door not thirty minutes later armed with medicine and a bag of food.

She handed Ava a glass of water and a bottle of pills with instructions to wake Sara and have her take some before heading off to Ava’s kitchen, muttering something about leaving as soon as she made her soup. Ava’s mother was a feisty woman with honey blonde hair and green eyes. She was also small. Ava was nearly a foot taller but she and every member of her pack knew better than to incur the wrath of one Patricia Sharpe.

Ava set the water and medicine on the nightstand, moving across the room to close the curtains, blocking out the sun and dimming the room before sitting back on the bed next to Sara. “Sara.” Ava says, softly running her fingers through the smaller blonde’s hair. She calls her name again, gently easing Sara out of sleep. 

“hmm no.” Sara mumbles, curling into herself more.

Ava shifts closer, gently rubbing up and down Sara’s arm. “Sara, honey you have to get up. You’re sick and you need to take some medicine.” A light blush spreads across Ava’s face as she lets the pet name slip, silently hoping her mate hadn’t heard.

Sara’s eyes slowly blink open, falling on Ava before she shoots up. Ava leans back quickly to avoid being headbutted. Her mate did _not_ need a concussion. “Hey, woah. You’re fine, you’re okay.”

“What-oh I’m sorry.” Sara says after realizing it was Ava in front of her, wincing as pain shot through her throat. Her voice was hoarse, she was cold and her head was pounding. She felt like complete and utter crap. 

“Is it time to go?” Sara asks, slowly unraveling the pile of blankets wrapped around her and cursing herself as she felt a chill through her body. She was sick. 

“Sara, you’re sick.” Ava says, staring incredulously at Sara.

“I’m fine.” Sara says, wincing as her voice cracks. She knew she wasn’t fine, but she didn’t want to burden Ava more than she already had. She was a doctor and was fully capable of taking care of herself when she got home. Right as soon as she found and unpacked the boxes with the stuff she needed.

Ava reaches for the pill bottle and hands it to Sara. “You’re not. You have a fever. Here, I figured you knew how much you should take.” 

“Thank you.” Sara says, looking at the bottle and taking two before giving it back to Ava. She’s handed a glass of water and gives a thankful smile to the other woman before downing the pills.

“I found your place by the way. I had a friend look when we got back.”

“That’s great. Should we leave in a bit?” Sara asks, falling into a coughing fit as soon as she got her words out.

Ava resists the urge to comfort her, not knowing how she would react to Ava touching her. Sara’s words catch up with her and she bristles at the thought of taking her mate home like this. She was sick and Ava wasn’t about to leave her on her own. “I don’t think I should take you home like this.” 

Sara lets out a small smile at how concerned Ava had sounded. “I’m a twenty seven year old woman. And a doctor. I can take care of myself, Ava.” Sara says before shifting so she sat beside Ava now, her feet on the floor. The small action left her breathing heavier.

“Hey, maybe you should lay back down.” Ava says, worried.

Sara ignores her and stands up, hand moving to her head as a wave of dizziness washes over her. Ava stands, reaching out to steady her before she could fall, using her right arm to pull Sara into her body and sitting them both back down on the bed. “Okay, maybe you were right.” Sara says, leaning on Ava, suddenly feeling very tired.

Sara lets her head fall on Ava’s chest and Ava’s left hand instinctively went to start running through the smaller blonde’s long locks. Ava was surprised that Sara had not moved away as soon as she had touched her. She knew how she felt about Sara but she had no idea how the bond they shared would affect her very human mate. It seemed that maybe Sara was being affected by this too. Ava had heard of werewolves having human mates but didn’t really know much about how it worked. She’d have to ask her mother.

Ava moves closer to Sara, virtually eliminating any space between them. “Is this okay?” Ava asks, tightening her hold on the smaller woman. Sara nods, sinking into the feeling of being wrapped around Ava. She had never felt more comfortable in her life. For whatever reason unknown to her, Ava made her feel warm and safe. Everything about her was drawing Sara in; her voice, her smile, how she felt against her body. Something inside Sara was telling her she needed to be close to this woman. Logically, Sara knew she should not be having these kind of thoughts about someone she has known for a day but at the moment, she was going to choose not to question it. Besides, it didn’t look like Ava was going to axe murder her.

Ava notices Sara’s breathing evening out and looks down to see the smaller woman’s eyes closed. She drops her hand from Sara’s hair and moves away slightly. 

Sara opens her eyes and starts to move away, thinking Ava was getting uncomfortable with holding her. “Sorry.”

“Hey no, I was just moving so you could lay down.” Ava whispers and Sara nods, letting Ava help her move up the bed to lay down. She hadn’t noticed that her right hand had taken hold of Ava’s shirt while she was holding her and had accidentally pulled Ava down with her. The awkward positioning of their bodies made it so that when Sara had moved to lay down, Ava had landed right on top of her.

Ava lay stunned on top of Sara. She wasn’t expecting the tug on her shirt and had reached out to steady herself, one hand on Sara’s hip and the other on the bed next to her head. She looked down at the smaller woman and found her staring, a light blush coloring her cheeks. Ava stared back for a quick second before taking her weight off of her and moving to lay beside her instead. She figured Sara wouldn’t mind.

An awkward silence fills the air before a thought pops into Ava’s head. “So you’re a doctor.”

“Yup.”

“A surgeon.” 

‘’Yeah.” Sara says, confused as she was pretty sure she’d already told Ava about her job when they were gallivanting through the woods.

“But you just said you’re twenty-seven. Aren’t you a bit young?” Ava asks. She had been too busy taking Sara in and had only now realized just how young she was.

“I graduated pretty early. Skipped a lot of grades.” Sara croaks out, turning on her side to face Ava. 

Ava shifts closer, turning her head to face Sara. “So you’re like, a genius.” She asks. Her mate was getting more impressive the more she talked to her.

“I liked school.” Sara shrugs, a small smile on her lips. “Not a much as my sister did though. She pushed me a lot. I probably wouldn’t be a doctor if it wasn’t for her.”

“You have a sister?” Ava asks and regrets it as soon as she does when she sees Sara’s smile drop.

“Had. She uh, She died. My parents too. Car accident.” Sara kept it short, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“I’m sorry.” Ava’s heart broke for her mate. From what she could tell, with Sara moving here and what she had just learned, she was alone.

“It’s okay. I’m getting through it. Laurel would haunt me if I let myself wallow. She was pretty crazy. We both were. We did not make it easy for our parents.” A giggle escapes Sara’s lips as she thought of the last time she and Laurel had been home. Her parent’s had freaked out when they had seen the tattoos.

“Tell me about them?” Ava asks. She had found Sara giggling to be the most adorable thing she’d ever seen and wanted to hear it again. 

Sara launches into story after story, her throat protesting as she talked and Ava had taken to handing her water and then eventually tea after a while. Ava hung on to every word, sharing stories of her own. Baring those that involved her kind, of course. She’d save those for later. 

It wasn’t until hours later when Ava had convinced her to take a nap that Sara had realized it was the first time in weeks she had talked about her family without bursting into tears. Talking to Ava had been almost therapeutic. She asked the right questions, listened to her without judgement or pity, and made her laugh more than she had in her life. All that while managing to care for Sara and fussing over medicine and blankets and tea. It was then that Sara knew Ava was someone she could see herself being with. Something about them just felt inevitable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Any opinions on whether or not I should make this G!P?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! There's a bit of a time jump in this one. 
> 
> Thanks for all the feedback on this fic. I've decided to try and update every Wednesday or Thursday. If you have any requests or suggestions, feel free to comment.

Chapter 4

It had been a little over a month since Sara had moved into her new home. Over a month since she’d met Ava. She had stayed with Ava another day before her fever broke and she had taken her home and every day since, Ava had come to visit. 

At first it had just been to talk and help Sara unpack. But a few days in, she had taken to fixing things. And by things she meant damn near everything in her house. 

It started with small things like oiling a door hinge and helping assemble a shelf. Then two weeks ago Sara had gotten back from the grocery store to find Ava on her roof, fixing a leak she had been complaining about for days and nearly giving her a heart attack. The irony wasn’t lost on her. 

A few days after that, she had helped Sara paint some of the rooms and the day after, she helped Sara fix the sink. Alright, Ava fixed the sink, she sat there and handed her whatever she asked for. At this point, she wouldn’t need to hire anybody to fix anything. Ava was single-handedly renovating her house.

Sara had started to feel guilty after the roof and had offered to pay her only to be refused again and again, being told her company was payment enough. She just about melted after that one. She had since learned to pay Ava back through food.

Sara had taken to cooking and baking and the taller blonde had been over almost everyday for lunch. And dinner. And breakfast sometimes. 

Ava always seemed to be hungry and had taken a liking to everything Sara made. Ava’s apparent love for her cooking only enabled Sara to spend more time in the kitchen than she ever had before. 

Sara had always loved cooking, she found the process to be extremely relaxing, but her schedule had not afforded her the time. She lived for her job and sometimes she was in the hospital for days at a time. Her apartment in Seattle was barely lived in. 

Now she had the time and the cooking gave her an excuse to keep inviting Ava over. If Sara was being honest, she was getting used to having her around.

…

Sara had woken up to the loud sound of something crashing. She bolts out of her bed, startled, not bothering to put on her robe before running down the stairs. She opens the door and is met with a smiling Ava wearing jeans and a loose flannel, holding a sledgehammer over her shoulder. Sara would have melted over the sight had she not seen the large hole in the middle of her porch.

“Good morning!” Ava chirps. Way too happy for someone about to be murdered.

“What the hell! Ava, what did you do to my porch?” Sara asks, stepping out of the door. 

“The steps were creaking.” Ava says to her clearly baffled mate. 

“The steps were creaking.” Sara echos, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. She had just woken up and was still a little disoriented. 

“Yes.” 

“So you put a hole through it?” 

Ava could sense Sara’s stressed out tone and was quick to reassure her. “Don’t worry. I’m building you a new one. The wood is old and I was worried it would break and you’d get hurt.” That was a lie. The porch was fine, the wood was actually pretty strong for a house this old and there was only one creaky step that would’ve taken five minutes to fix. 

“Honestly, it only took one swing to do that.” Ava gestures towards the sizable hole on top of the first stair on Sara’s porch. Granted, it was really a good solid swing from a werewolf, but technicalities. 

“You’re build- I don’t- what’s happening.” Sara couldn’t form words, alternating between looking at the damage and Ava who had put the hammer down.

Ava wasn’t exactly proud of herself but she had been running out of reasons to see Sara and admittedly, panicked a little. It had been over a month and she still hadn’t told Sara about herself. She didn’t want to push too much too soon and end up scaring Sara away so she had taken to spending as much time with her as the smaller woman would allow.

Ava could feel what the physical distance to Sara was doing to her and her pack had started to notice it too. When she wasn’t with Sara or hadn’t seen or heard from her for more than a few hours, she was aggressive, irritable and short-tempered. She had snapped at poor Gary the week before for some small reason she couldn’t even remember and Ray had been avoiding her after a particularly rough sparring session where he ended up flying though a tree. It wasn’t a very big tree, but still.

On top of everything, she hadn’t been getting much sleep. The tension was building inside her and she had been having a hard time getting herself under control. There had been a full moon a couple of days ago and Ava had chained herself in her basement and had given everyone strict instructions not to let her get anywhere near Sara. She had broken free of the restraints and it had taken both Nate and Ray to hold her down before Amaya could knock her out.

Ava walks up the stairs and towards Sara, reaching out to touch her arm. “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll make you a better one. It’ll be done in a week. Two tops.” She’d get Nate and Ray to help her.

“Ava, you can’t do that. It’s too much. I can just hire someone to do it.” Sara says, leaning into Ava’s touch. There had been a lot of that lately. Touching. Ava always seemed to be touching her. Whether it was a brush of her hand or the full blown cuddle sessions that would happen whenever they had a movie night. It never went further than that but Sara was starting to crave more. 

Sara absolutely loved spending time with Ava and dreaded every time had to leave. It freaked her out at first, how fast she seemed to develop feelings for for the taller blonde, but she had long since given up on trying to stop whatever was going on between them.

“No, don’t get anyone. I like doing this kind of stuff remember? I promise I’ll make you a better one.” Ava insists. She was already feeling guilty over the damage she caused, she wasn’t about to let Sara pay someone to fix it when she was fully capable of doing it herself. 

Plus, she didn’t know how she would react to someone she didn’t know spending time with Sara; being close to her. It was best not to test it.

“Okay. Only if you’re sure.” Sara says, giving upon arguing with the other woman. 

“I’m sure.” Ava says, rubbing her thumb gently over Sara’s arm. 

Now that everything was sorted, Ava took the time to really look at Sara, letting her eyes roam down her body and blushing as soon as she does. Sara had noticed Ava’s flushed face and looked down following the older woman’s line of sight, blushing a bright red herself. 

In her haste to get down, she had forgotten exactly what it was she had fallen asleep in. She was wearing nothing but underwear and an oversized shirt. Her legs were on full display and she was made blatantly aware that she wasn’t wearing a bra when she felt a cold breeze blow against her skin. 

Sara was quick to wrap her arms around herself and Ava developed a sudden fascination for the door behind her. 

“I-Uh, muffins!” Was what came out of Sara’s mouth. She’s pretty sure her face could not get any redder at this point. 

Ava looks at her, confused. 

“I was-muffins-baking last night. Breakfast.” She wasn’t making sense now. 

Sara took a deep breathe before letting herself speak again. “I made some muffins last night. Would you like some? For breakfast, I mean.”

Ava nods, clearing her throat. “Yes, yeah. I’d love to eat you. With! With you!” Sara’s eyes widen, certain that her face was probably an alarming shade of red. Ava was willing the ground to swallow her up, not quite believing what just came out of her mouth.

They both looked at each other before coming to a silent agreement that neither would say anything and just move on. 

Sara opens the door and walks into her house, heading towards the kitchen with Ava following close behind. 

“You know where I keep ‘em. I’m just gonna get in the shower real quick.” Sara says before making her way up the stairs.

Ava had spent enough time in Sara’s house to know where everything was and her mate had never shown signs of being uncomfortable with her in her space so Ava had gotten comfortable moving around.

She made her way around Sara’s kitchen, grabbing a muffin from the jar Sara had kept out in the middle of the island and moving to start making coffee for them, taking bites out of the muffin as she went. 

Ava was highly impressed with Sara’s creations and was only too happy to be her ‘test subject’ of sorts. Her mate loved to bake. She was damn good and Ava was not shy about showing it. 

She had given Ava a batch of cookies to take home and Ava had made the mistake of bringing them over to Amaya and Nate’s house for a meeting. She had turned around for not ten seconds and the cookies were gone. She had since learned to take whatever goodies Sara made her straight home.

Ava was on her fourth muffin when Sara popped into the kitchen, hopping on top of the island and sitting cross-legged in the middle before reaching into the jar for a muffin. She was dressed in jeans and a green fitted sweater. 

“You going somewhere?” Ava asks, handing her a cup of coffee.

Sara nods. “Yeah, I need to go grocery shopping. I’m running out of food.” 

“Do you need help? I could go with you.” She wasn’t entirely comfortable with Sara going to town on her own. It wasn’t exactly dangerous but Ava was still anxious to be away from her. 

Near everyone in town knew of her kind or were something else entirely but it was never spoken of. She had made sure everyone important knew who Sara was and she had spent enough time with the smaller blonde that anyone ‘special’ who wasn’t from here would be able to smell Ava’s scent on her. No one was stupid enough to piss her off but it wasn’t an impossibility. Sara was her mate but technically, she hadn’t claimed her yet and that had made things tricky.

“I could even show you around. You haven’t really seen much of anything.” Ava says, settling herself on one of the stools in front of the island on the other side of Sara.

“I guess, if you don’t mind.” Sara was ashamed to admit she hadn’t really left her house much. It was a forty-five minute drive out to town and she was perfectly fine staying home.

“I don’t mind. How many times do I have to say it, I like spending time with you.” Ava shrugs, finishing off her food. Sara ducks her head slightly to hide a blush at how nonchalantly Ava had said that, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

She looks up after a moment and has to hold in a laugh as she catches Ava eyeing the jar of muffins longingly. Ava looks up at her and back at the jar. It was adorable. 

Sara sighs, rolling her eyes before sliding the jar over to the taller blonde. She hears Ava mutter a quick ‘thank you’ before happily reaching into the jar.

“I swear sometimes I think you use me for my food.”  
…

Ava’s mate is a child.

They were in the grocery store for a good ten minutes when Sara asks Ava to grab her some flour. She takes her time looking for the kind Sara had asked for, eventually finding it and walking back in search of her mate.

Ava nearly drops the bag of flour when she sees Sara.

The smaller woman had hopped on the metal rod under the push cart and was using it as a makeshift scooter, zipping through the isles.

She heard a high pitched squeal followed by laughter that could not have belonged to Sara. Her mate stops when she sees her and gives her a sheepish smile. 

Sara was minding her business in the vegetable isle when a little girl with brown hair and brown eyes that couldn’t have been older than three, had walked up to her and asked if she could sit in the cart.

Sara was reluctant at first but the little girl had pointed out her mother and Sara had recognized her as the woman who owned the store. After a quick nod from the woman, she had given in and soon enough, the child, Molly, had convinced her to race through the isles. She was a sucker for little kids.

Ava walks closer and spots a familiar face sitting inside the cart.

“Auntie Ava!” The little girl shouts excitedly, drawing stares from other shoppers around them. 

Sara looks at her from where she’s perched on the cart, raising an eyebrow. “Auntie Ava?”

“Hey nugget. Where’s your mom?” She asks, reaching in to pick the little girl up. 

Molly points towards her mother. “I play with Sara.” She says, smiling sweetly at Sara.

“Did you?” Molly nods, settling in Ava’s arms. 

“Pretty Sara.” 

“Sara’s pretty?” Ava asks and the little girl nods. Ava looks up at Sara, enjoying the light blush spreading across her cheeks. "I know, Sara's very pretty." 

Molly starts to squirm in her arms and Ava sets her down. 

“I go to mama.” She mumbles, waving a goodbye to both women before running off to her mother.

“She’s adorable.” Sara says as she grabs a bag of apples from the shelf and places it in the cart. 

“Yeah. She’s my best friend Nate’s niece. She seemed to like you. She doesn’t normally do well with strangers.” Ava points out. Molly was a shy child and almost never approached people. 

“She’s a sweetheart.” Sara shrugs. “I used to work on kids a lot back in Seattle.”

“Really?” Ava asks, curious.

“Yeah, lot’s of little hearts needed fixing and I was good with kids. That and my best friend Nora is a Pediatric surgeon. We worked well together.” It wasn’t the first time Sara had mentioned her friends. She had even met Sara’s friend Zari when she facetimed her in the middle of movie night. 

Sara stops and reaches out towards some cereal, it was on the top shelf and she struggled to reach it. 

“Need some help?” Ava says, smirking as she leans on the cart. She had taken to teasing Sara about their height difference a couple days into their ‘friendship’, finding the smaller woman’s glare to be one of the most adorable things she’s seen.

“No.” Sara huffs, jumping a little to try and reach the box before giving up releasing a heavy sigh. “Fine. Yes, please.”

Ava stifles a laugh as she reaches up to grab the box with ease. 

“Here you go, little one.” She says and can’t help but laugh at the glare she receives. 

“I am not little. I happen to be of average height. You’re just really tall.” Sara says indignantly, starting to push the cart towards the check-out.

Ava walks up behind her, playfully pressing against her back and placing her hands beside Sara’s on the bar, effectively trapping her in between Ava and the cart. “I don’t know. I think maybe I have to go shopping with you more often. How are you supposed to make me cookies if you can’t reach the flour. Wait, is that why you made me get it?”

Sara blushes as Ava laughs behind her. She was getting flustered enough when the other woman pressed up against her. 

“Shut up. I’m not short. Just a little, I don’t know, vertically challenged.” Sara huffs in annoyance when Ava breaks into laughter behind her. She wasn’t really mad but she enjoyed the sound of the other woman’s laughter and Ava seemed to get a kick out of this.

Sara leans back against a still laughing Ava and tilts her head up to look at her. Her lips were level with Ava’s jaw, perfect for what she was about to do. “Well, I’ll be over by the check-out when you’re done.” 

Sara leans up and plants a kiss on Ava’s cheek, dangerously close to her lips. The laughter stops abruptly and Sara walks towards the counter, leaving a dumbfounded Ava in her wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Things will be progressing more in the next few chapters.
> 
> Also, I'm thinking of writing a couple one-shots so if you have any suggestions, send me a quick ask/message on Tumblr (nightowl1899)
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> P. S. Any suggestions for Ava's middle name?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This kinda sets up what happens in the next chapter. Sara meets Amaya briefly in this one.

Chapter 5

“Do you wanna stay for dinner tonight? It’s been a few days and I’m trying out a new recipe.” Sara asks Ava as they load groceries into the back of her car. 

Ava hadn’t been over for dinner in a few days. She had told Sara it was because she had a family thing, and really it was. There had been a full moon and it had been best that she was away from Sara for a few days. 

Now that she’d found her mate, it was damn near impossible to stay away from her. Ava had already been on edge from the moment she met Sara and the full moon took every ounce of control she had and shoved it out the window. 

Ava loved the feeling of letting go and shifting, but the full moon made it so werewolves had little to no restraint over their baser instincts. It was also when they were at the peak of their abilities. 

She wanted Sara so bad it hurt. It was a miracle her pack members had been able to stop her from doing something crazy like breaking down her mate’s door.

Ava knew she would never hurt Sara, even in her deadliest state; but she’d also never been in this position before. Never wanted someone as much as she wanted her mate. Ava was so much stronger and far more aggressive than she usually was when she was dealing with a full moon. 

If she was being honest, Ava did not know how she was gonna stop herself next time. She wasn’t sure if Amaya could knock her out again after another month of all this building tension building inside her. Of course, should it come down to it, she’d think of something. Ava would protect Sara from anything, even herself.

“Hello, earth to Ava. You still in there?” Sara says, waving her hand in front of Ava’s face.

“Uh what?” 

Ava was still reeling over the kiss that Sara gave her inside. It was only on the cheek but it was the closest she had gotten to initiating something between the two of them. There was also the fact that Ava’s self-control was hanging by a thread and with only a few days between the last full moon and today, she was still suffering a little from the after effects.

“Dinner tonight?” Sara asks, smiling when Ava nods in confirmation.

“You know I’d never refuse anything you made.” 

“Yeah. I still don’t know how you can eat so much and look like that.” Sara says, making a gesture towards Ava’s body with her hand.

“Look like what?” Ava asks, a smirk starting to form on her lips. 

Ava may have been waiting for Sara, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew her mate found her attractive. In fact, she had taken to wearing more sleeveless tops when she discovered Sara’s fascination for her arms. Ava was surprised she hadn’t asked about her tattoos yet, considering the amount of times she’d seen Sara ogling them.

“You know, just-that you-I’m not doing this.” Sara says, a blush rising to her cheeks as she turns towards the car and shuts the backseat door with a little more force than necessary.

Ava takes pity on her mate and decides to let up. “So do you need anything else?”

“Nope.” Sara shakes her head, twisting the keys to her car around her fingers. 

“Well okay then. Let’s go.” Ava reaches for Sara’s hand and starts walking, taking a confused Sara with her.

“Where are we going?” 

“I’m showing you around. This place is amazing and you haven’t seen much of it. Almost everyone knows each other so if you’re gonna live here then you might as well meet a couple of people.”

Ava was determined to show Sara around. The smaller blonde wasn’t as familiar with the town as Ava would have liked her to be and she was making it her job to show her everything. There was also the added bonus of having people see her with Ava. The more people saw them together, the better. 

Some people were starting to get curious and the last thing Ava needed was someone coming to see Sara and slipping up. Her mate would not find out about her from someone else. Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone did or said something. Sara had managed to move to the most supernaturally inhabited place on this side of the planet and Ava knew she would have to tell Sara soon.

Sara nods in agreement, letting herself be led into what looked like an antique store. The bell above the door rings as Ava opens it and guides Sara in.

A woman who looked to be about her age emerges from the door behind the counter. She had dark hair that went down past her shoulders and brown eyes. She smiles as she sees Sara and Ava walk towards her.

“Good morning Amaya.” Ava chirps, dropping Sara’s hand, much to her dismay, and reaching towards a glass bowl on the counter to grab a handful of what looked like candy.

“Hey Ava. You gonna introduce us or…” Amaya asks, throwing a discrete wink towards the taller blonde before turning to face Sara and giving her a warm smile.

Amaya knew exactly who Sara was. After all, she had the unbelievable pleasure of knocking Ava out not three nights ago to stop her from running to the smaller woman’s house and all but jumping her. 

Ava had yet to introduce any of her pack members to Sara. They were, for lack of a better word, a lot. She loved her pack and she considered them to be her family, but they weren’t exactly discrete. 

Amaya had always been comforting in nature and she emanated a calming warmth that drew people to her. Ava knew she was the ideal person to introduce Sara to first.

“Sara this is Amaya. She was the one who helped me find your place a couple weeks ago.” Ava says.

Sara reaches out and Amaya leans over the counter to shake her hand.

“Hi. It’s nice to finally meet the woman who saved my ass. I probably would have been stuck at Ava’s if it weren’t for you.” Sara says, smiling.

“Something tells me she wouldn’t have minded.” Amaya mutters under her breath.

“I’m sorry?” Sara asks, not quite hearing what the other woman had said. 

“I said, I was happy to help. It couldn’t have been fun. Getting lost like that.” Amaya has to hold back a smirk at the glare Ava shoots her way from behind Sara.

“Amaya.” Ava warns quietly. Sara ears weren’t as sensitive as theirs and she knew she didn’t have to worry about her hearing them.

“Yeah, I just got here and woke up to this loud noise and found Ava banging away at something. It was something for a car right?” Sara asks Ava, completely oblivious to the exchange as she inspects a small chest she had picked up.

Ava nods, popping one of the candies into her mouth.

“I bet that wasn’t the only thing she wanted to bang.” Amaya murmurs, turning her head a little to stop herself from laughing as Ava chokes on the piece of candy she’d just put in her mouth.

Sara sets the chest down, quickly moving to Ava’s side and rubbing up and down her back as she coughs. “Woah. You okay?”

Amaya pops up on the other side of Ava armed with a glass of water and an amused smile. Ava takes the glass, downing half the water and glaring at her friend. 

It was official, Nate had managed to completely corrupt Amaya.

“Do you guys wanna stay for some tea?” Amaya asks as soon as Ava hands her back the glass of water. She was having fun teasing the Alpha but she also wanted to get to know her mate. 

Amaya could somewhat understand how complicated this was for Ava. Her circumstance was different from what she went through with Nate but she could understand the longing. She had met her mate when she belonged to a different pack. Her father was the Alpha and he wasn’t too keen on letting his daughter leave. It didn’t help that her pack resided on an entirely different continent. It had taken weeks to iron out the details but she eventually convinced her father to let her go. 

Ava had jumped through all kinds of hoops to help and had welcomed her into her pack with open arms. Amaya’s situation with Nate had been complicated, but they both knew exactly what the other was to them. Nate knew she was his mate and they both understood the weight that carried.

Ava’s situation with Sara was delicate. One wrong move and Sara could react badly or worse, completely reject Ava. Amaya owed a lot to Ava and she did not want to see her friend get hurt.

“No no. That’s fine, we’re fine. We have a couple more stops.” Ava says, before Sara could say anything. 

“You taking Sara to see the bookstore?” Amaya asks as Ava gives Sara a light nudge and nods towards the door.

“Nope.” Ava’s reply came quick. She was not about to take Sara there. Her family owned that shop and her mother would most likely be there.

She had been pestering Ava about telling Sara and it had led to an argument ending with her mother threatening to tell the younger blonde herself should she ever see her. Ava understood where her mother was coming from but she wasn’t ready. So the only logical thing to do was to keep her mate as far away from her mother as possible. At least until Ava’s mustered up enough courage to tell her.

“There’s a bookstore? I wouldn’t mind stopping by. I love my job but I’m gonna go crazy if I have to read another medical book.” 

“Yeah just across the-you know what, I think they’re closed today.” Amaya cuts herself off when she sees Ava shake her head subtly with a hard look on her face, a look that said stop. 

It was rare for Ava to give any of them direct orders but when she did, they obeyed without question. Ava was a kind leader, she was never one to force anything on her pack but she was also ruthless and unyielding when need be. She commanded respect and had earned the loyalty of everyone in her pack; it wasn’t often that anyone challenged her authority. 

Amaya had been with her pack for almost three years and in that time, she had only seen a total of four people challenge the Alpha. All of whom were left incapacitated. 

“Oh. Maybe another time then.” Sara says, following Ava as she started towards the door.

“Yeah, another time. It was nice meeting you, Sara. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” Amaya says, showing them out.

“You too.”

Ava nods towards Amaya as she leads Sara out of the shop.

…

It had taken almost the entire day but Ava had taken Sara to every place she could think of. They had walked through almost the entire town and at this point, she was sure Sara was familiar enough with the place that she wouldn’t be in danger of being lost or putting herself in a bad situation. Ava had made a point to tell Sara about the sketchier places. 

Eventually, Ava ran out of places to take Sara that didn’t involve exposing herself and they found themselves walking aimlessly through the park.

“Are you tired? Do you wanna go home?” Ava asks as Sara stops to sit on a bench. It was late afternoon and they had been walking the entire time, with the exception of stopping for lunch. Ava was sure Sara had developed an addiction for the milkshakes at the diner Gary’s mother managed.

“No, I’m good. It’s nice out here.” Sara sighs, patting the space beside her.

Ava slides down next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. “It is.”

“You know, if you had told me a year ago that I would be living here, so far from a city, I would’ve laughed in your face. But I’ve been here a few weeks now,”

Ava senses the shift in the mood and turns to face Sara, moving her arm so it rested on the bench behind her. “And?”

“And I kinda love it.” 

Ava finds herself feeling relieved at her response. One of her fears had been that Sara wouldn’t like it here. She didn’t know what she would do if Sara decided she’d had enough and decided to leave.

“Do you miss it? Seattle, I mean. Your job.” Ava asks.

“Honestly? No.” Sara shifts slightly, moving herself closer to the taller woman. “I mean, I love being a doctor and saving lives, but I don’t think I’m ready go back there. I moved for my sister and I didn’t have anything to stay for. I went back to work a week after the accident and I just- I couldn’t do it. I still can’t. At least not yet.”

Neither of them spoke after that. Sara was close enough now that Ava could wrap her arm around the smaller woman and she had taken to rubbing soothing circles on her arm.

“You know, I broke that swing once.” Ava says after a while, breaking the silence pointing towards a swing set a ways in front of them. She didn’t like seeing Sara upset and was determined to change her mood.

“Did you hit it with a sledgehammer?” Sara asks, teasing.

Ava lets out a chuckle. “I deserved that, but no. My friend Nate said I couldn’t swing higher than him.”

“Could you?”

“I don’t know, it tipped over before we could find out.” Ava says, smiling as Sara starts laughing beside her.

“I can totally picture little you flying off that thing.” Sara says, turning to face Ava.

“It was like, eight months ago.” Sara bursts out into another round laughter.

“Oh my god.”

“They had to weld it down.”

Sara was shaking with laughter, leaning on her fully now. Her back was pressed up against Ava’s side and Ava’s had had migrated down to the smaller blonde’s hip.

They sat there in silence for a while before Sara started to play with the end of Ava’s shirt sleeve. She lifts the ends up a fraction and starts tracing the tattoos lining the taller blondes skin. The pattern surrounding the base of her wrist resembled a cluster of trees and Sara knew from quick glimpses that there was a detailed drawing of a full moon at the top of her forearm. 

“Do you want me to tell you what they mean?” Ava asks, enjoying the feeling of Sara's touch on her skin. 

Sara shakes her head, pulling the sleeve of Ava’s shirt back down turning her face to look up at the older woman. “No.”

“No?” Ava asks, confused.

“I mean, not no. Just, not yet.” 

Ava nods and Sara can sense her confusion but she wasn’t about to tell Ava that she wanted to see the entire thing. She knew Ava had more than just the ones on her left arm and she wanted to see all of them. 

Asking Ava to take her shirt of in a public park probably wasn’t the way to go. Of course, she wouldn’t be opposed, but she’d rather it be done when they weren’t in public.

Honestly, Sara was a little surprised Ava hadn’t tried to do anything but hug her or hold her hand. She had been dropping hints for a while now and the older woman remained oblivious. It wasn’t as if she was being subtle. Sara was sure Ava had caught her staring at her more than once.

“So is there anywhere else you wanna take me before we go?” Sara asks, weaving her hand into Ava’s.

Ava thought for a while before she remembered the shelter not a block from where they were sitting. She wasn’t sure how Sara felt about animals but seeing as the smaller blonde was in no rush to get home, she might as well ask. She herself wasn’t a huge fan but short of going to the mall or a bar, Ava couldn’t think of anything else.

“Well that depends.”

“On what?” Sara asks, curious.

“Whether you like furry four legged creatures. There’s an animal shelter about a block from here if you wanna go.” Ava watches her mates eyes light up and had a feeling she was gonna be in that shelter for a while.

Sara stands abruptly, smiling as she hears Ava grumble in light protest as she pulls away from her.

Sara absolutely adored animals. She had always wanted a pet but her parents never got one and when she started living alone, her job didn’t afford her the time to give any animal the care it needed. But now she had a lot of time on her hands and had been thinking of getting a pet since she moved. 

Sara holds her hand out for Ava to take and pulls her up as soon as she takes it. 

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> Until next week...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Stuff happens in this one. I hope you like it.

Chapter 6

“I’m taking her home.”

“Please don’t.”

“But she’s adorable.” Sara whines, cradling a cream colored puppy to her chest like one would a baby. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, happy to let the puppies climb all over her.

“You said that about the last _eight_.” Dogs. The last eight dogs. The cats were another story. Ava was sure had she not been blessed with the reflexes she had, she would have several scratch marks on her body.

“She’s so fluffy.” Sara coos lifting the puppy at eye level.

“God please don’t let her get a dog.” Ava mutters under her breath as Sara picks up another puppy that had been pawing at her leg, setting the one she already had on her lap.

Ava was slowly regretting taking Sara to the animal shelter. Seeing her mate with the little animals had to be the most adorable thing she had ever witnessed but they had been here for a little over two hours now.

They had been to see puppies, kittens, and this one bird that developed a weird attachment to Sara. All of which scuttled away at the mere sight of Ava, much to Sara’s confusion.

Ava completely understood why but Sara was shocked to say the least. She kept trying to bring whichever animal she picked up close to Ava, only for it to start whining or hissing at her. 

She stopped after the one cat tried to claw her face off.

Ava shuddered at the thought of the orange tabby who had no qualms with going for her face.

It was rare for smaller animals to like werewolves. At best, they tolerated them. It was something about their aura that frightened smaller animals.

The only werewolves Ava knew who had pets were Gary and Amaya. Even then, Gary’s dog barely tolerated him and Amaya often left her cat to it’s own devices.

“I don’t know how you can hate puppies. Everyone loves puppies.” Sara says, glancing at Ava briefly before turning her attention back to the two puppies she had in her arms.

“I don’t hate puppies. _They_ hate _me_.” Ava says from her place on the other side of the pen, having moved as far away from Sara as the space would allow. 

She knew she would scare the puppies if she got too close and was content to watch her mate play with the furry creatures. 

“I don’t know why. You’re not exactly scary.” Sara mutters, just loud enough for Ava to hear.

“Excuse you. I am terrifying.” Ava says, playfully glaring at the younger blonde. 

In reality she was. When she was shifted into her wolf form, Ava looked pretty damn scary. She had a dark brown coat that had some streaks of the same honey blonde color her hair was. She was an alpha so she towered over most of her pack members, easily rivaling the size of a full grown bear and instead of maintaining her eye color as a wolf like others, her eyes often turned into a bright red. A mark of her power. Any werewolf would know an alpha by their eyes.

“No, you’re really not. You’re like, fluff. You’re fluffy.” Sara nods to herself, sparing a glance at Ava.

“I’m what?” Ava asks, amused.

“You know, fluffy. Like a puppy. But a person because you’re obviously not a puppy. But you’re kinda like one. What I’m saying is you’re like a puppy, Harmless. Cute. Fluffy.” Sara was rambling now, a light blush coloring her cheeks.

“Okay.” Ava says. She wasn’t sure what to say to that. Sara thought she was fluffy. I mean, technically she was kinda fluffy, as a wolf. However, harmless, she was not.

“So you think I’m cute?” Ava asks, teasing. If she had to stay in this god forsaken shelter, she might as well have a little fun.

“Well yeah, I do.” Sara says nonchalantly, letting the puppies go and reaching for another one in her vicinity.

“W-wait, what?” Ava wasn’t expecting that answer. She was expecting the usual flustered muttering Sara did whenever Ava started to tease her.

Sara turns her attention from the puppy and glances up at Ava, rolling her eyes at the woman’s shocked expression. She had had just about enough of whatever weird thing she and Ava were doing. 

Over the past month, Sara would drop hints left and right, flirting with the other woman any chance she got and Ava would reciprocate only to pull back before anything interesting happened, leaving Sara both flustered and confused. 

Sara thought Ava was pretty perfect. She helped Sara with damn near everything and found the littlest of excuses to spend time with her. She was still suspicious of the porch incident this morning. 

Ava was with Sara almost everyday and was always happy to just sit and talk for hours upon hours on end. She liked Sara’s cooking, she sat through sappy rom-coms, and she had no problem hearing Sara ‘talk doctor’ as she described it. Once, she actually listened to Sara describe every step of doing a heart valve repair after Sara voiced her concerns about maybe getting a little rusty (She wasn’t). She was pretty sure Ava would watch paint dry with her if she asked nicely.

At first it was cute. Ava always seemed so nervous and careful around her, always checking to see if she was okay with something as simple as holding her hand. Sara appreciated it really. Ava was probably the most polite, caring and gentle person she had ever met. 

But Ava _never_ made a move. 

Never tried to do anything more than hold her, never noticed the boulder-sized hints that Sara was dropping all over the place and definitely never tried to kiss her. 

Sara was sure Ava would at least try _something_ when they were out in the park, but she didn’t. She walked all over the goddamned town for hours, met a bunch of strangers and left her groceries in her car for the entire day. She even made sure to be extra touchy with the taller blonde. Still, nothing.

Quite frankly, Sara was at her wits end. 

She didn’t know what to do, short of taking Ava home and just stripping in front of her. Even then, Sara was half convinced Ava would give her a jacket to keep her from getting cold or something.

“I said, I think you’re cute. Beautiful. Hot even. You’re adorable.” Sara says, not bothering to look up from the ball of fluff she had on her lap.

“What.” 

“Honestly Aves I’m not blind. You’re gorgeous. I mean, at this point you must know I like you.” Sara says to a dumbstruck Ava.

“What.”

“You _do_ know I like you, right?” Sara asks, twisting her body to fully face Ava who was still leaning on the wall opposite her. She was still sitting cross legged on the floor but she wasn’t about to let go of the puppy she was holding.

“Well y-yeah I guess. You probably wouldn’t be friends with me if you didn’t.” Ava manages to get out after shaking herself out of the shock induced state she was in.

“Frie-Are you kidding me with this woman.” Sara mutters to herself, releasing an exasperated sigh and moving to stand up.

“Ava. I like you. As in, _like_ like you. I have feelings for you. Romantic feelings. Not friend feelings, okay? And I’m pretty sure you like me too.” Sara says, standing up and brushing of her jeans, puppy still in her arms.

“What.”

“I like you Ava. In a gay way. Like, _very_ gay. _Extremely_ gay. So gay I’m pretty sure rainbow colored hearts are gonna shoot out of my eyes.” Sara’s voice was slightly raised now and she was standing less than a foot away from the other woman. She wasn’t sure there was any other way she could explain.

“What.” That seemed to be the only word the taller woman could get out.

Ava was pretty sure her brain was short circuiting. She was definitely not expecting Sara to go off like this. She had been so focused on doing everything at a glacial pace that she hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Sara actually wanting her back in that way. 

Ava had spent a lot of time trying to condition herself for the possibility of Sara only wanting to be friends and nothing more that she was not prepared to have her mate openly saying she had feelings for her. Romantic feelings. Very gay feelings apparently.

She was so awestruck that she couldn’t seem to do anything other than stare wide-eyed at her mate who was looking at her expectantly.

“Are you okay? Did I break you? Are you broken?” Sara asks, putting the puppy down and placing her hands on Ava’s shoulders, shaking her lightly.

“I uh I just, Huh.” Ava was silently cursing herself for being a stammering mess. Here her mate was, all but throwing herself at her and she couldn’t even get a word out.

She was never like this. Ava prided herself on always being confident and straightforward. She never faltered. But it seemed that anytime Sara did anything she became a stuttering fool. 

“I should have just gotten naked.” Sara mutters, exasperated and Ava almost chokes on her own spit.

“What?” Ava’s words come out in a quiet squeak.

After almost a full minute of silence, Sara drops her hands from the taller blonde’s shoulders, taking a small step back. She had expected a little bit of shock, maybe some of the cute stuttering she usually did whenever Sara got a little flirty. She was not expecting nor was she prepared for the full on gay panic Ava seemed to be experiencing.

“I need a drink.”

That seemed to snap Ava out of whatever trance she was in. Sara sighs heavily, moving to turn around only to be stopped by Ava’s hand on her arm. “Wait. Sorry. I uh-I just, that was a lot.” 

“Yeah. I think we scared the puppies.” Sara says letting out a giggle and nodding towards the small creatures playing on the corner farthest from where they were standing.

“Maybe.” Ava knew it was her close proximity to Sara that deterred the puppies from jumping all over her.

“Hey Sara.”

Sara looks up at the taller blonde. “Yeah?”

“I like you too. A lot.”

Sara smiles, leaning closer towards Ava. “I know.” 

Before Ava could say anything else, one of the volunteers, a younger looking woman from the shelter walks towards them. 

“Hey, sorry to interrupt but we’re just about ready to close for the day.” The woman says, smiling apologetically at the two.

“It’s okay. Thanks for letting us stay so long.” Ava says, following Sara as she started towards the shelter’s door.

“It’s no problem at all. Come in anytime you want.”

They both smile at the younger woman before walking out through the door and out into the street, noticing immediately how dark it was. 

“You wanna get that drink you wanted?” Ava asks, glancing at her mate who was standing beside her and nudging her gently. 

“Mhmm. I pick the place though.” Sara says, playfully nudging her back before grabbing her hand and starting to walk.

…

Ava led Sara towards a booth, hand resting on her lower back as she eyed the bar’s occupants. Out of all the places they had passed, she hadn’t been expecting Sara to choose this particular place.

It wasn’t that it was bad. It was nice. Great actually. The drinks were amazing and they served decent food. Ava had been here countless times with her friends.

That was the problem.

The people who frequented this bar weren’t exactly the most human. It wasn’t glaringly obvious if you weren’t looking but she knew that staying here with Sara probably wasn’t a good idea.

She had tried to steer Sara away but her mate was set on going to this particular bar and Ava couldn’t refuse her without looking suspicious.

“What do you want? I can go get it.” Ava says as Sara settles herself on one side of the booth. Ava had picked the one in the bar’s line of sight, wanting to be able to see Sara even when she left to get them their drinks.

“You’re pretty popular around here huh.” Sara says, nodding towards the people on the other side of the space. They were looking at Ava intensely and talking amongst themselves.

Ava looks in towards them, visibly stiffening when she saw who it was that caught her mate’s attention. 

It was just her luck really. Having what she can only describe as the most infuriating person she had ever had the displeasure of meeting be here at the one time she was here with Sara.

On a table at the other side of the bar sat a visiting pack. Ava was used to their presence as they would often have to pass through her territory for one form of business or another. They were delightful people. 

Their alpha was a gentle man who often shied away from conflict. It was for that reason that they sought an allegiance with Ava’s pack. They weren’t very handy in a fight.

It was just the one beta, Darren, that got on Ava’s nerves. He had little to no respect for her authority and seemed to enjoy getting a rise out of anyone he met. 

Ava had never been driven to assert her dominance, thinking herself above his childishness. Nate, however, had nearly killed the man after he tried something with Amaya, going a bit too far.

“Yeah, they’re just people I know in passing.” It wasn’t technically a lie. She didn’t talk to them much.

Sara nods in understanding.

“So what do you want?” Ava asks again, nodding towards the direction of the bar.

“Just a beer please.”

Ava nods, turning around and heading towards the bar and giving the bartender her order. 

“That the girl that’s got everyone talking?” The bartender, Megan, asks. Nodding towards Sara who seemed to be playing some game on her phone.

Ava nods. 

“She’s pretty.”

Megan wasn’t a werewolf but she was one of the people who knew of their existence. She owned the bar and had lived here all her life.

“She is.” Ava smiles.

“Does she know?” Megan asks, reaching for some glasses behind her.

“Not yet.” Ava says.

Megan glances behind Ava, a small frown making it’s way onto her face at the sight she’s presented with. A man seemed to be talking to an uncomfortable looking Sara who had now pocketed her phone and was nervously glancing at Ava who was not aware of what was happening.

Megan had lived here long enough to develop a certain understanding of how the people worked. Sara was Ava’s mate and there was another werewolf making a move on her. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ava was the alpha of the pack who had claim on this territory. She knew this wouldn’t end well.

She watched as the man put his hands on the table, leaning closer to the smaller blonde who scooted away.

“Please don’t break by tables.” Megan says. She knew Ava had more control than most of her kind, there was still a chance that she could calm her down before she saw and things escalated.

“What?” Ava asks, confused.

“They’re new.”

Sara was standing now, trying to walk away only to be stopped as the man grabs her arm. At that point Megan knew there would be no calming Ava down.

She was about to bring the situation to Ava’s attention when Sara beat her to the punch.

“I said let me go!” 

Ava’s head turns towards her mate as she hears the alarm in her voice. Her vision goes red, blood rushing to her ears as she’s filled with a hot rage at seeing Darren who had Sara pinned to the wall beside the booth they previously occupied. Sara was struggling against him and a growl escapes Ava’s lips.

In almost no time at all, she’s got a grip on Darren’s wrist, putting enough pressure to cause him pain and release his hold on her mate. She throws him against the wall to her right away from Sara, advancing on him and pinning him to the wall immediately after.

Sara lets out a shocked gasp as she sees Ava quite literally throw Darren six feet into the other wall, her eyes flashing a different color as she did. The entire bar was deathly silent now. Everyone turning their attention to the scene unfolding before them.

She had been convinced that the situation was handled until she was all but pinned to the wall. Sara had been in that situation before but there was something different about how the man, Darren, had been talking to her. It was like he was taunting her and the look he gave her was almost predatory. It was only when he had her pinned to the wall that she had started to panic.

Ava had her forearm pressed against the man’s throat, watching in satisfaction as he tried and failed to get out of her hold. She knew he had been trying to get a rise out of her by messing with Sara. Her scent was all over her and only an idiot wouldn’t notice. 

He played on her possessiveness and protective nature towards her mate to piss her off and as Ava pins him to the wall, snarling menacingly, he was living to regret his decision.

“Fuck! I’m sorry! I didn’t know she was yours! I didn’t know!” He groans, still struggling against the hold Ava had on him.

That only makes Ava even more angry, growling and pressing her forearm harder against his throat. Darren looks towards his friends but they remained hovering a few feet away from the scene. They had tried to warn their friend but were clearly unsuccessful.

Ava knew they wouldn’t interfere for fear of incurring her anger. She knew they were all aware that if it came down to it, she could take them all down without much effort. That and their pack depended on hers for protection. They wouldn't risk anything.

“You knew. You knew who she was and you still did it.” Ava snarls. It was the first time she had seen the man with real fear in his eyes and it gave her a sick feeling of satisfaction.

Sara who was listening behind them shook away her shock when she noticed how Darren was now struggling to breathe as Ava didn’t let up. She ran forward, taking a hold of Ava from behind. She wrapped one arm around her waist and grabbed at Ava’s arm with her free hand.

“Ava. That’s enough. Let go.” She could feel how tense Ava was and pushed down her shock as she heard Ava growl at the man when he let his eyes fall on her. She watched as Ava pulled him back, only to slam him back into the wall. Sara was certain she heard a crack when she did.

“Ava! Ava c’mon, stop. Stop.” She tried to pull Ava away but was unable to move her. It was like trying to move a boulder.

Darren was quickly turning a different shade and Sara quickly switched strategies, moving the hand she had on Ava’s arm and wrapping it around her shoulder instead, making t so that she was completely pressed up against Ava’s back.

“Hey, c’mon Aves, ease up. Everything’s fine now. You can let him go.” Sara whispers soothingly against Ava’s ear. She rested her chin on Ava’s shoulder, tightening her hold on her waist.

That seemed to work as she can feel Ava’s grip on Darren loosening until she eventually let him go. 

Darren slides down the wall, his breathing heavy.

Sara sighs in relief, loosening her grip on Ava but not fully letting go for fear that Ava might actually kill the man.

Darren attempts to stand only to drop back down when Ava lets out a low growl, glaring. 

Sara urges Ava to turn around, again finding it in herself to keep a calm facade at the sight of the taller blonde’s eyes. She would process the bright red orbs staring at her later. Right now her only priority was to get Ava as far away from Darren as she could.

One of Darren’s friends attempts to step forward, presumably to apologize but stops when Ava directs a glare his way, dropping her hands to Sara’s waist.

“You should take her home.” A voice from behind Sara speaks. She turns her head and recognizes the bartender. 

“I’ll take care of this. Nate and Amaya should be here in a bit.” She says. 

Sara failed to see how Amaya could help but finds herself nodding anyways.

“C’mon.” She she says, tugging at Ava’s arm lightly. She was still glaring at the man on the floor but another hard tug from Sara gets her attention.

Ava gives her a look. Something mixed with shock, fear and realization, looking as if she had broken out of whatever had come over her and was now aware of exactly what it is she had done. She opens her mouth to say something but Sara shakes her head. This was not the time.

“Let’s just, Let’s just go.” Sara says, stepping back from Ava and walking towards the bar’s exit. 

Ava stays on her heels, already filled with fear and dread at the conversation that now had to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Thoughts? Suggestions?  
> Until next week...


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! They finally have 'the talk' in this one. I kinda rushed a little with this so all the mistakes are mine. I hope you guys like this one.

Chapter 7

The drive back to Sara’s house was quiet as neither one of them said a word. 

Sara sat in the passenger seat of her car still reeling from the events that transpired less than an hour ago, not quite believing what she had just witnessed.

Ava had thrown someone across the bar without so much as breaking a sweat. The way she did it made it seem like it took no effort at all. Ava who she had ever only known to be calm and gentle had nearly killed someone for trying to make a move on her. Yes, she was admittedly in a bit of trouble but Sara had not expected Ava to react the way she did. 

Her strength surprised Sara. No matter how hard she had tried, she couldn’t get Ava to budge. It was like trying to move a brick wall. Sara knew Ava was strong but what happened was different. Ava should not have been able to do what she did. It just didn’t make sense.

There was also the fact that Sara could swear Ava was growling at Darren like some kind of animal. She heard it when Ava came after him and felt it when she had herself pressed up against the taller blonde.

And her eyes. Sara was sure she had seen them change in color.

One minute they were the comforting pale blue she had been growing to love and in a split second she saw them change into a striking bright red.

If all of that wasn’t confusing enough, Sara still couldn’t process anything about the conversation Ava had with Darren. If it could even be called a conversation. 

She had heard the man call her _Ava’s_. Like the woman had some sort of claim over her. When he was being pinned to that wall, he kept apologizing for touching someone who was _‘hers’_. And Ava made absolutely no move to correct or deny anything. In fact, she seemed to be agreeing with him.

Sara found herself feeling both baffled and scared. There seemed to be an entirely different side of Ava that she had been blissfully unaware of. Sara had never seen anything like it and she couldn’t help but wonder if Ava was being at all truthful with her the entire time they’ve known each other. She wasn’t sure if she even knew who Ava really was, or what for that matter.

But the more Sara thought about it, even as she witnessed Ava almost kill a man and do things that no normal human should have been able to do, she had no problem with being close to her. At all.

She was scared, yes. But she found that she wasn’t scared of Ava. Some weird unknown part of her somehow knew that Ava wouldn’t hurt her. Sara didn’t know what it was exactly, but she just knew. Just like for some unbeknownst reason, she knew she would be able to calm Ava down. And she did.

Sara knew it wasn’t Ava herself that scared her, what scared her was not knowing anything. She was frightened of how little she actually knew about the older woman, and at this moment, she wasn’t sure how she could handle everything.

“We’re here.” Ava’s says, voice just barely above a whisper as she stopped the car right in front of Sara’s house. 

Ava was quick to offer to drive back, receiving no protests from the smaller woman. In fact, Sara hadn’t said a word since they left the bar. She had just handed Ava the keys and remained silent for the entire forty-five minute drive back.

Sara was never quiet. It was one of the things Ava loved about her mate. She always had something to say and Ava wasn’t used to seeing the other woman so silent and unresponsive. 

It absolutely terrified Ava.

She knew she handled the situation at the bar horribly. She lost her control. She heard her mate in distress, saw Darren pinning her to a wall and just reacted. In that moment, her baser instincts took over and all she could think was he was touching _her_ mate against her will.

Ava had never felt such rage. She wanted to kill him and if it weren’t for Sara, she probably would have.

She was so caught up in the moment that she didn’t even notice that she had completely exposed herself to Sara in the worst way possible and in the process, may have scared her mate away. 

“Sara.” Ava says, reaching over to touch the smaller blonde but quickly pulling away when she sees her shift uncomfortably.

Sara takes a breath, not bothering to look at the other woman before undoing her seat belt and stepping out of the car.

Ava was quick to follow. She wasn’t about to leave without at least trying to explain everything. This was definitely not how she pictured this happening but she didn’t have a choice anymore.

Not for the first time, Ava wished she’d just listened to her mother.

“Sara.” Ava calls from behind her, walking to catch up.

Sara ignores her, briskly walking up the steps of her porch and tripping over one of the loose boards, completely forgetting about the damage on the deck in her haste.

Ava was quick to steady her before she could fall but as soon as she put her hands on Sara, the smaller woman pulled away, flinching and leaning against the door. Ava stepped back as soon as she did, putting her hands in front of her and giving Sara space. 

“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Ava says, feeling like she might throw up. Sara had never pulled away from her before. She always welcomed Ava’s touch, liked it even, and Ava’s heart dropped to her stomach at the thought that she had effectively scared her mate this much.

“No It’s-It’s fine. I just- I don’t know.” Sara mutters out, wrapping her arms around herself. 

“Can we talk? I need to explain everything that happened back there. Please.” Ava says, her voice faltering slightly as she took a slow step forward. She knew Sara was most likely scared but they needed to have this talk. She was ready to beg if she had to.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.” Sara says, looking down as she nervously fidgeted with the sleeve of her sweater, unconsciously leaning further against the door. She didn’t want to hurt Ava but she was still trying to process everything and having her around was confusing. 

Ava saw Sara lean back against the door and felt like she was going to cry. Did she really scare her mate enough to have her think she’d hurt her? “Sara. You know I’d never hurt you. You know that, right?” 

Sara heard how tortured the older blonde sounded and looked up to face her, feeling her heart ache when she saw tears pooling in the older woman’s eyes. She looked genuinely distraught and Sara was hit with the sudden urge to comfort her so she moves closer, not quite touching the other woman but close enough that she could reach out and touch her if she wanted.

“Ava, I-” Before Sara could say anything else, she was cut off by a anxious and frantic Ava.

“I just, there are things I have to tell you. Things I should have told you sooner but I didn’t because I was scared. I know you saw what happened back there, and I know you don’t understand and you’re probably terrified. And I understand that you saw me hurt someone but I just, I saw what he was doing and I couldn’t keep control.” 

Ava was aware at how crazy she must sound right now but she was upset and terrified at the thought that Sara might ask her to leave. “But Sara I promise you, I would _never_ hurt you. It’s impossible for me to-I could _never_.” A couple of tears had started to fall down her cheeks as she talked.

In the time that they’d known each other, Sara had had never seen Ava cry. The sight was heartbreaking and she was quick to pull the older woman into her arms, snaking her arms around Ava and tucking her face into her chest. “Hey, I know. I know you wouldn’t.” 

Sara was suddenly flooded with guilt at the thought that she had made Ava feel so upset, no matter how unconscious it might have been. 

Ava wrapped her arms tight against Sara, shocked that she was letting her hold her but she wasn’t about to complain. 

They stood there for a few a while in silence before Ava musters up enough courage to talk again.

“Can I uh, can we talk?” Ava asks, burying her face in Sara’s hair and sighing in relief as she feels the smaller woman nod against her.

Sara pulls away from Ava’s hold, moving to open the door and the latter resists the urge to let out a whine in protest. Sara walks into the house and makes her way to the living room with Ava following close behind her.

“I’m gonna go freshen up. I’ll be back in a bit.” Sara says as soon as they make it into the living room. 

“Okay.” Ava says, nodding in understanding. 

She understood that Sara probably needed a minute to compose herself before the talk they were about to have. Ava was still extremely nervous but the fact that Sara had agreed to talk and let her into her house was giving her hope that everything might turn out okay.

Sara leaves the living room and makes her way up the stairs and into her bedroom, closing the door and leaning on it for a moment. 

She took a deep calming breath before walking to her dresser and pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. If she had to have whatever conversation she was about to have with Ava, she might as well be comfortable doing it.

Sara walks into the bathroom and takes her time changing into the significantly softer clothes. 

She takes a moment to look at herself in the mirror and lets out a disgruntled sigh when she spots a bruise forming on her right arm. There was some some light bruising that went around her upper arm that Sara knew would darken come morning. She hadn’t been paying attention to how hard the man, Darren, had grabbed her but now that she wasn’t wearing the sweater, she could see it was apparently hard enough to bruise.

She inspects herself further and groans in annoyance as she sees another on her wrist. “Great. That’s just great.”

She had been too busy being in her own head to feel anything and now that she had the time, she was making sure she had not missed anything, stopping only when she was satisfied at having found no other injuries. 

She looked over the bruises she did have and deduced that the one on her wrist looked far worse than the one on her arm. She saw the bruising around it starting to darken and winced as she felt some pain after moving it around experimentally. 

“Damn it.” Sara hisses in pain, cursing herself as she starts to poke and prod at the area, eventually coming to the conclusion that she would need to ice and wrap it as soon as Ava left.

Ava. She had left Ava alone.

Sara finishes off and walks out of the bathroom, grabbing a blanket from her bed and wrapping it around herself before making her way downstairs towards Ava.

She saw how Ava reacted to Darren and she did not want to know what the taller blonde would do if she saw that he actually did hurt her. 

Sara makes her way towards the couch where Ava sat, settling on the other end and turning her body so she sat facing the other woman.

Ava mimicked the way her mate sat, turning her body to face her and letting herself mourn over the large space that was left between them. She understood why it was there but that didn’t mean she had to like it. 

“So…” Sara says after a full minute of silence.

Ava looked up and saw the smaller blonde looking at her expectantly. “I don’t know where to start.” She says, shifting nervously in place. She had been avoiding this talk for a while now, trying to prepare herself for when it happened and now that it was, she had nothing.

Sara sees Ava’s discomfort and moves a little closer, tugging the blanket around herself a little tighter while making sure it still covered her wrist. “How about we start with how you did what you did.”

“Okay.” Ava says, taking a deep breath to center herself before starting. “I guess you could say that I’m a little different. I’m not like you.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asks, making an effort to relax and leaning against the couch.

Ava takes a moment to think about how she was going to say her next words as she starts to fidget with the sleeve of her shirt. Sara sees the action and leans over to take one of Ava’s hands into her own. Making sure to use her uninjured hand.

“Hey, it’s okay. Just tell me.” 

Ava nods, taking Sara’s hand in both of hers before deciding that it was best to just rip of the band aid.

“I’m a werewolf.” Ava says quickly, keeping her eyes down.

“A werewolf.” Sara repeats slowly.

Ava nods.

“Like, from myths and stuff?” Sara asks, confused but not completely disbelieving. She thought it was crazy of course, but she saw unbelievable things and she knew she couldn’t expect to hear a logical explanation. Logical by her sense of the word, at least. 

Ava nods again, mildly surprised that Sara wasn’t leaving or calling her insane. “Not really a myth though. We exist. We’re just really good at hiding.”

“I don’t understand.” Sara says, so Ava starts to tell her everything, choosing to hold nothing back. 

She tells Sara about the things she can do, explaining how she could shift into a wolf anytime she wanted. How the full moon made her stronger and faster than she already was but often stripped her of her restraint. She talked about the physical changes she had when she wasn’t fully shifted.

“So your eyes. The red?” Sara asks, moving closer to Ava as she listens to her talk.

“It comes out sometimes. I usually have more control but I slipped. The red is a sign of my status.” Ava explains, starting to run her thumb over Sara’s hand. 

She lets her eyes change for a few seconds to show Sara before blinking and letting her eyes change back. Sara seemed more curious than scared when she did, letting her hand stay in Ava’s grasp. 

“Your status?”

“I’m an alpha.” 

“What does that mean?” Sara asks, finding herself feeling soothed by Ava’s touch. She was still confused but the more Ava said, the more she started to believe what was coming out of her mouth.

“It means that I’m the leader of my pack. I handle everything. Protect our territory, settle disputes and some other stuff you might get to see. Physically I’m stronger, faster and a lot bigger when I’m shifted.”

“Okay. But I still don’t understand what all this has to do with me.” Sara says and Ava stiffens. She had been trying to avoid this part of the conversation for as long as she could. “When you were talking, that guy, he said that I was yours. He was scared and he was apologizing for touching what was yours and you just- what did he mean by that?”

“It’s complicated.” Ava says and Sara looks at her with disbelief.

“Are you kidding me? Ava, you just told me that you’re a werewolf. Something I only ever heard of in old bedtime stories. How much more complicated can it get?” Sara asks, incredulous.

“This thing, it changes things and I just- I don’t want you to get scared. I’ve done that enough tonight.” Ava mutters out, looking away from Sara and turning her attention to one of the rings on Sara’s fingers.

Sara lets Ava nervously play with her hand, trying to think of how she could make the other woman more comfortable. “Aves, I’m not scared. You haven’t done anything, okay?” She says, scooting closer so there was only a couple of inches between their bodies. 

Sara was telling the truth. She was still a little confused and more than a little curious, but she was by no means scared of Ava. Even as Ava was telling her what it is she actually was and what it was she could do, Sara never once thought Ava would hurt her. She had the same feeling she always had when she was with Ava. Calm, safe, content. 

“You’re not?” Ava asks, unsure but comforted by Sara’s use of the nickname.

“I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Ava nods, steeling herself. She needed to be prepared if Sara took this badly.

“We don’t know why it happens, but some werewolves, we get someone. A person we’re meant to be with. A mate. It’s not something we can control and it doesn’t happen to everyone but when it does happen, we can’t stop it.” Ava starts, “What we feel, it’s indescribable. There’s a need to be close to them and even the thought of not being with them is- it’s physically painful. Werewolves, we don’t always get to choose for ourselves but we only choose one. Just one person.” 

Ava is looking straight into Sara’s eyes now, trying to make sure her mate understood every word. “And this person, they become everything to us. We would do anything to make them happy, to protect them, love them. We can get clingy and jealous and possessive, but we’re physically incapable of hurting our mates.” 

Ava moves closer, eliminating the space between them and moving her hand to Sara’s forearm. “It’s why I could never hurt you. I won’t ever. I’m not capable of it. All I could ever want is for you to be safe and happy. Sara, do you understand what I’m trying to say?” 

“Sara.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions? 
> 
> I'm thinking of writing a couple one shots so if you guys wanna send in some prompts or if you wanna talk about this one you can find me on Tumblr (nightowl1899)
> 
> Until next week!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next one for you guys. I hope you like it.

Chapter 8

Sara finds herself unable to say anything. She understood what Ava was saying but she just couldn’t find words to say. Everything Ava said, no matter how foreign the concept was to her, made sense. 

Sara let herself think of how Ava always, _always_ without fault, did everything she could think of to make Sara happy. She almost never refused Sara of anything. She helped with everything she could think of, she was gentle and kind and she made Sara laugh more than she ever had in her life; not to mention she almost killed someone trying to _protect_ her. 

There was also something to be said about how Sara felt about Ava. No matter how she tried to look at it, Ava made her feel things she had never felt before. To an extreme. Sara was never one to let anyone get as close to her as she let Ava. But there was a sense of need to be near her and an almost longing feeling when she left. It was one of many reasons why she always invited Ava over. She simply felt at ease with her around. She hadn’t questioned it before but after what Ava just told her, no matter how insane it sounded, it made sense.

It made sense, but Sara felt so far out of her depth. She liked Ava. A lot. One might even say she was falling in love with the other woman. But the thought that everything that was happening was because of some supernaturally divine being didn’t feel like something she could so easily accept.

Sara had always lived by the belief that she carved her own destiny. That every decision she made determined what and who she wanted to be, and to have Ava tell her that they were _meant_ to be together, almost as if there was no other choice, went against a lot of what Sara believed in.

“Sara.” Ava moves both hands to gently cup Sara’s face. “Say something. Please.”

Sara shakes herself out of her thoughts, “I uh, I- okay.” she wasn’t about to say anything of weight now. Not when she didn’t know all the facts, and she was definitely not going to say anything that would hurt Ava. The mere thought of that made her uncomfortable.

“Okay?” Ava asks, more than a little stunned at how well Sara seemed to be taking this. She expected yelling and crying, hell she fully expected Sara to run for the hills, but she was not expecting calm.

“I-I understand, I mean.” Sara says, voice barely above a whisper. Ava moves one of her hands down to Sara’s arm, knocking the blanket off as she did.

Sara moves to pull it back up, remembering that it was supposed to be covering something but she doesn’t pull it up fast enough judging by the sharp intake of breath she hears from Ava.

“What’s that?” Ava asks in concern, pulling the blanket down low enough to reveal the bruise on her upper arm. Ava runs her thumb over the bruise lightly, letting her her other hand fall from Sara’s face.

“Its nothing. The guy at the bar just gripped a little too hard. It’ll be gone soon enough.” Sara says nonchalantly, noting how Ava seemed to tense up.

“I didn’t think he actually hurt you.” Ava says, actively trying to keep herself calm for Sara’s sake. When she went after Darren, it had been at the thought that he _might_ hurt her mate. The fact that he had actually done it made Ava’s blood boil.

Sara takes the hand that wasn’t inspecting the bruise on her arm with her left hand. “Neither did I, but it’s just a couple of bruises. They’ll go away.” Sara realizes her mistake as soon as she feels the hand she was holding tighten in her own.

“A couple? There’s more?” Ava asks, voice dripping with worry. She let her eyes roam over any exposed skin she could see, looking Sara over worriedly.

“It’s really not that bad. I was gonna wrap it up in a bit.” Sara says making her voice sound as soothing as she could, trying to calm Ava down while subtly trying to bury her right hand further into the blanket she was still holding. 

Ava catches the motion and stops herself from reaching out to see for herself. She wouldn’t touch Sara without her consent. Even if it was to check for injury. “Will you show me, please?” She asks, knowing what Sara was trying to do.

Sara lets out a sigh, “It looks worse than it actually is. It just needs to be iced and wrapped.” she says before taking her hand from under the blanket and showing Ava. It looked worse than when she had first looked at it and Sara mentally cursed as she thought about how it would probably look the next day.

Ava sees the bruising around Sara’s wrist and finds herself unable to contain the growl that escapes her lips. “Sara. Why didn’t you tell me.” She asks, choosing to push her anger down and moving to inspect her mate’s wrist. 

“It’s not a big deal.” Sara says, wincing in pain as Ava gently prods at her wrist. Ava is quick to stop, voicing out an apology. “I didn’t even notice them until we got back.”

“It’s is a big deal. He shouldn’t have even touched you. He knew who you were and he still-” Ava cuts herself off, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as she barely resisted the urge to leave now and find Darren. Everything was going kind of well so far and she did not need to freak Sara out by going after him. No matter how much she wanted to.

Sara notices the quick change in Ava’s demeanor and moves to take one of Ava’s clenched fists, starting to rub circles on her wrist until she felt her relax a little. After everything that happened and what she’d just been told, she was quick to figure out that she had a weird ability to calm Ava down.

“How could he have known? How does that work?” Sara asks, both curious and trying to distract Ava. 

Just because she didn’t quite know how she felt about all of this, doesn’t mean she wasn’t going to try and understand a much of it as she could.

“You smell like me.” Ava says.

“I- what?” Sara asks, a confused look on her face. 

Ava lets herself smile at the look of confusion on her mate’s face. “It’s not a bad thing. It’s a werewolf thing.” She says. “Everyone has a specific scent and I spend so much time with you that you kinda smell like me.”

“You can sme-you know what, I’m not gonna get into that. So what you’re saying is he could smell your ‘scent’ on me?” Sara asks, pointing at Ava then herself. 

“Not as much as I would like, but yeah.” Ava mutters out a little petulantly. While Sara was upstairs, she had time to think about things and she’d deduced that the events of tonight had partially been her fault. Of course, Darren was in the wrong but technically, she had yet to claim Sara fully. She would have been able to protect Sara better if she had just told her sooner.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re gonna think it’s weird.” Ava gets a raised eyebrow for that one.

“Okay, so you understand that you’re my mate. Right?” 

Sara nods.

“Well you are, but like, not really.” Ava says, finding trouble with how she was going to explain the process to Sara. “Not yet anyways.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asks, finding herself confused not for the first time tonight as she wrapped the forgotten blanket around herself again, shifting to make herself more comfortable.

Ava looks around the room, trying to fight off the rising embarrassment. “There are things that need to happen. Uh you know like, things have to be done. By uh, by us.” 

“What kind of things?” Sara asks, seemingly oblivious to what the taller blonde was implying as well as her embarrassment.

Ava starts to fidget nervously with the end of the blanket wrapped around Sara. She had only had the ‘mating talk’ once in her life and she had not been able to look her mother in the eyes for weeks after it happened.

“Well you see, I uh- there’s some stuff that we have- well, I have to do. Since you’re not a werewolf I guess I have to uh, you know-”

“Ava, are you talking about sex?” Sara asks, an amused smile making it’s way to her lips as she cut off a nervously rambling, red faced Ava.

Ava feels her entire face get warm and she’s unable to stop the words from leaving her mouth as she continues to fiddle with the ends of the blanket in her hands, looking at anything but Sara. “What? No! I mean, Yes that but I uh-”

“Ava.”

“There are things, other things that have to happen and-”

“Ava.” Sara tries again but the other woman seems to be on a roll.

“I don’t know how you’re gonna feel about-”

“Ava!” Sara raises her voice slightly, moving both of her hands to cup Ava’s red face. “Breathe.”

Ava takes a deep breath, letting Sara calm her down. 

“Okay.” Sara says, dropping her hands from Ava’s face when she seemed to settle. She instead takes hold of one of the older woman’s hands, leaning in close. She was clearly nervous about what she had to say and while Sara was too, she was more curious about what it was. “Just, out with it.” 

Sara looks at Ava expectantly and the latter nervously clears her throat before blurting it out. “I need to bite you.

Sara leans back in shock, both eyebrows raising. Out of all the things Ava could have said, she was not expecting that. “You need to what?”

“I need to bite you.” Ava repeats herself, eyes trained on Sara’s face as she tried to gauge her reaction.

Sara blinks twice before asking, “Like, _bite_ bite?” 

Ava nods.

“Why?”

Ava shakes her head, “I don’t really know why, but a connection is formed when it happens. I’m not quite sure how it works.”

Sara takes a breath to center herself before speaking. “What if I don’t want any of this? I mean, do I even have a choice? Do you?” She asks.

She wasn’t trying to hurt the other woman but all of this was starting to feel like a lot and she needed to know.

A sad smile makes it’s way onto Ava’s lips. “I don’t have a choice, no. But you do.” Ava knew that after meeting Sara, she would never find anyone she wanted to be with again. But Sara was human, she was under no obligation to be with her and if she didn’t want to be with Ava, she wouldn’t force her. “You’re not a werewolf. You don’t have to do anything. You can choose to do whatever you want.”

Sara shifts slightly, taking her hands from Ava’s and moving to pull the blanket around herself as she feels the mood in the room shift. “But what happens then?” 

“You go on with your life.” Ava sighs.

“But what happens to _you_?” Sara asks, watching as Ava shifts uncomfortably in place.

 _I leave to try and give you your space, go into a depressive state, and live the rest of my life with the knowledge that I will never find love again._ Was what Ava wanted to say. “I have to go. I can’t be here for a while.” Is what she says instead. Less worrying for Sara but true nonetheless.

She needed Sara to make the choice herself, without worrying about the consequences her rejection would have on Ava. It needed to be Sara’s choice. She wouldn’t have her mate staying out of obligation.

“Why would you- I don’t- why?” Sara was confused. 

“I told you, we only get one. I won’t want to be with anyone else and I would need to distance myself from you. To get used to it. But if it needs to happen, I can take it. You shouldn’t be forced. You didn’t ask for this.” _I won’t be able to take it_. Ava thought to herself. 

Sara was conflicted. She had wanted to be with Ava since they met, but there was a lot she didn’t know and the more she knew, the more unsure she became. A huge part of her was ready to give in. To tell Ava she wanted her, wanted _everything_ with her. But there was a little nagging voice in her head that asked, _is she worth it?_

Was Ava worth stepping into a completely different version of what she thought the world was? Was Ava worth giving every fiber of her being to? Because that’s essentially what all of this sounded like. Was she worth loving?

Sara had too many questions for herself. Too many to answer right at this moment.

“I think I need you to leave.” Sara says, voice just loud enough for Ava to hear and the taller blonde feels her chest constrict in fear. Ava took a shaky breath, feeling tears start to pool in her eyes at the thought that Sara might actually be rejecting her. 

“Not like that.” Sara blurts out, as if following Ava’s train of thought. “I just- I need time. I need to think about all of this.” 

Ava nods in understanding, releasing a heavy sigh before turning away from Sara and getting up off of the couch. If her mate needed time to process, she would give it. She allowed herself to feel consoled by the fact that Sara hadn’t flat out rejected her. At least not yet. 

At this point, Ava was ready to give her anything she asked for if it would mean that there was even the slightest possibility that Sara might choose to be with her.

“Ava.” Sara calls as Ava moves to walk away, stopping when she felt Sara’s hand touch her arm. She turns to face the smaller blonde trying her best to look calm, not at all how she felt on the inside.

“I wasn’t lying earlier today, when I said I like you. Because I do. I like you so much, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way for anyone. Fuck, I think I might even be falling for you.” Sara starts, letting her hands fall from Ava’s arms down to her hands, grabbing hold of them. 

“But I need time to think about this because it’s a lot. I have to take the time to let everything sink in and think about what this all means and I can’t do that if all I’m thinking about is how badly I wanna kiss you. Okay?” She needed Ava to understand where she was coming from and why she needed the space she was asking for. 

Ava nods, letting a small smile form on her lips. She could understand where Sara was coming from. She knew she wouldn’t like it but she would gladly give her mate the time she needed and the fact that Sara still seemed to feel comfortable around her gave her a little bit of hope. 

“Okay.”

“I promise, I’ll come over as soon as I figure everything out.” Sara says, leaning up on her toes to place a kiss on the taller woman’s cheek before letting her walk out the door.

Only when she was alone did she remember the groceries she had left in the car. Sara lets out a groan, walking towards her car and starting to unload the groceries that she had gotten earlier in the day. 

She had a lot of thinking to do and she wasn’t sure if she could stay here, so close to Ava and make the decisions she had to make. It certainly didn’t feel like something she wanted to go through alone.

Sara takes her phone from the pocket of her pants, pulls out a number, takes a moment to think and makes the call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for all the cliffhangers. I write a lot of the chapters ahead of time and I guess I was feeling some type of way. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys liked this one. Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> Until next week!
> 
> You guys can find me on Tumblr at nightowl1899


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thought I'd post this one a day early. I start class in a week so I might not be able to post updates on a schedule but I'll try to update at least once a week.

Chapter 9

Sara looks up, startled from her baking when she hears the doorbell ring. She drops the cookie cutter in her hand, leaving the cookie dough she had been shaping in favor of running towards the door in excitement and scrambling to get it open.

As soon as she swings the door open, Sara is sent stumbling back as she’s tackled into a hug by an enthusiastic energy filled Zari Tarazi.

“Sara! Oh my god I missed you!” The other woman mumbles into her neck, arms wrapped tight around her best friend.

“Hey Zari.” 

“It’s been almost two months and I had no one to talk to.” The woman says, exaggerating as she keeps her arms around the smaller blonde.

“Ouch.” Sara hears the mildly offended tone and looks over Zari’s shoulder to see Nora Darhk standing about a foot behind Zari. 

An amused smile makes its way to Sara’s lips as she notices how ‘bundled up’ the two women looked. Both Zari and Nora had large thick coats on with gloves and wool hats.

“Well, obviously I had Nora. But she doesn’t care about hospital gossip and I’m getting real sick of hanging out at pediatrics. There are way too many sick tiny humans. It’s depressing.” Zari complains, moving away from Sara and letting Nora take her into her arms for a short hug. 

She had called Nora two weeks ago, right after Ava had left, needing the support and company of her friends. The two women finished off the work they needed to finish and came as soon as they could with no questions asked. 

Ever since Ava left, she found herself feeling weird. It wasn’t quite _bad_ but it didn’t feel good either. It was like being away from Ava was taking some sort of toll on her. Sara felt uneasy all the time and no matter what she tried to do, sleep would not come as easily as it used to. She hated that it was taking this long and she wanted to go see Ava right now but she needed more time to think.

Sara was grateful to have her friends with her, even if it was only for a few days. She obviously wasn’t going to tell them anything about what was going on, she was going to keep the whole ‘werewolf’ thing to herself, but having Zari and Nora here would be good for her. She needed the company.

“Yeah well I’m not going anywhere near Ortho. I don’t exactly like the sound of bones being reset.” Nora shoots back before turning to face Sara. “Sorry we took a while. It’s a busy time of year.”

“Yeah, you know how it is.” Zari says, huffing as she walks from the porch and towards the shiny black SUV Sara assumed they rented. “If I have to see another drunk idiot who fell of their roof stringing Christmas lights, I’m gonna scream. It’s barely even December.” 

“Ice and booze. Never a good combination. Can’t say I miss working this time of year.” Sara lets out a laugh at her friend’s exasperated tone. She knew all too well how people could get during the holidays.

“I’ve treated eleven in the last week. _Eleven_ , Sara.” Zari groans, complaining as she starts unloading her luggage from the car. Nora shakes her head in amusement and moves to do the same with Sara on her heels.

Now that she had them here, Sara realized just how much she had missed her friends. She had known the two women since they started their internships together. She was a couple of years younger than them but they had all clicked as soon as they met at the hospital’s orientation. 

Zari was a spitfire. She emanated a natural confidence and fearlessness that often drew people to her. Somehow always managing to look like she was about to walk a runway in her scrubs, with gorgeous brown eyes and long dark hair. She was also the main source of information for anything and everything happening. For some reason, unbeknownst to Sara, she always knew exactly what was going on, being the go-to person for current hospital events. There was also the fact that the woman was a hell of a doctor. 

Nora was equally as impressive, with her long dark hair and piercing blue-green eyes. She wasn’t quite as outgoing as Zari, mostly choosing to keep to herself, but she noticed everything. Nora had a way with just knowing when something was wrong and nothing went past her. She was honest to a fault, kind, and was just as confident in her abilities as Zari and herself were. 

Nora was easily one of the most brilliant pediatric surgeons Sara had met. She liked to take the more complicated cases and had a talent with communicating with children, always knowing how to put them and their families at ease. Sometimes Sara thought she preferred their company over anyone else’s.

“What she’s saying is, we needed the break.” Nora says, groaning with effort as she lifts her luggage from the car’s trunk, closing the door after checking if they had left anything. Upon seeing that they didn’t, all three women started towards the house.

“Okay, I ignored it before but I can’t anymore. Are we all just going to gloss over the fact that Sara’s porch looks like a construction site?” Zari quips from where she’s standing a few feet from the house, staring at the mess that was Sara’s porch.

Nora stops, turning her attention to the sight. “Yeah, you’re gone for a few weeks and suddenly you’re Bob the builder? Are you switching careers? Do we need to stage an intervention? Is that why we’re here?” The blue eyed woman teases, an amused smile tugging at her lips. 

“Sara, You. Are. A. Doctor. You’re useless around tools, you’re going to hurt yourself and I don’t want you to die.” Nora says slowly in mock seriousness, putting her hands on Sara’s shoulders and smiling a little as she hears Zari snickering behind her.

“No that’s not why you’re here. Shut it.” Sara shoots a glare at her friends before taking a moment to survey her porch. It _was_ a mess. The hole was gone but it was unfinished. There were wooden planks stacked up towards the right side of the space, the railing of the stairs were not attached and the entire thing was yet to be painted. 

“There was some damage but it’s getting fixed.”

Ava had been giving Sara the space she asked for and she was grateful. At first, Sara thought she had to hire someone to fix the porch but two days after the talk they had, Ava had sent her friends to do the work. Sara was hesitant in the beginning, not knowing how she felt about two complete strangers, _werewolves_ , doing this for her; but eventually she just let them be.

She limited the time she had to see Nate and Ray to a minimum. More often than not, she’d leave some of whatever she baked that day out for them when they weren’t looking. They were both nice people and after Nate introduced himself as Amaya’s mate she felt more at ease, but she wasn’t ready to face everything just yet. 

“Okay. Can we go inside now? I’m freezing.” Nora says, pulling her coat tighter against herself and following as Sara leads them inside.

Zari drags on behind them, struggling a little with lugging the large suitcase she had brought with her. “You couldn’t move somewhere warm and sunny?” She asks, eyeing the trees surrounding the property. “And less like something out of cabin in the woods.”

“I like it here.” Sara says, shaking her head in amusement as both of her friends parked their luggage near the door and started to remove their coats, craving the warmth that her house provided.

“ _You_. Sara Lance. The same woman who called in sick to work for a week after that one blizzard hit. _You_ like it _here_?” Nora asks in incredulity. 

Sara nods. 

“But you hate the cold.” Zari says, “You hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns.”

They had a point. Sara had never been one for cold weather and she absolutely loathed when she had to leave the nice toasty comforts of her home in favor of going out in the frigid weather. But there was something about this place that softened her to it. 

The longer she stayed, the less she minded the weather. Part of her knew that a large reason for this change was because of a certain blonde haired blue eyed werewolf.

“Well now I like it.” Sara says. “C’mon, I’m making cookies and I’ll whip us up some hot cocoa.” She leads both women into the kitchen, setting off to make the warm drinks as they settled themselves on the stools by the island.

“ _Anyway_ , how are you doing?” Nora asks the blonde, not wasting any time as she placed her elbows on the counter, resting her head on her hands. “You didn’t exactly give us any details.”

“I’m doing great. I just missed you guys.” Sara says, busying herself with making the drinks, trying to avoid looking at Nora directly. The woman was a human lie detector and she would see through her immediately. Besides, it wasn’t a complete lie. She _had_ missed them.

“You sure?” Zari asks from her place beside Nora, evidently having noticed _something_ about the way Sara was acting. 

“Yup.” Sara says, pushing two cups of hot chocolate towards the women in front of her and moving to resume cutting the previously forgotten cookie dough. “So how’s everything going with you? Anything new?” She asks, turning the attention away from herself.

Nora looks at her suspiciously for a moment before seemingly choosing to drop whatever it was she wanted to say, for which Sara was grateful.

Zari studies Sara’s expression for a moment before taking Nora’s lead and choosing not to question the blonde further. Instead, she goes on and on about everything she had missed while she was gone and Sara let herself get distracted from all thoughts of werewolves and mates. Choosing to turn all of her attention to her friends. 

…

Ava was tired.

It had been two weeks since she had seen or even heard from her mate and she wasn’t doing too well. 

The first few days were somewhat manageable. She snapped at almost everyone about the smallest issues and she felt constantly on edge, but it had been manageable.

However, the longer she went without any form of contact with Sara, the more she started to lash out. She was short-tempered, aggressive, and just plain exhausted. After a week, she chose to see her pack members as little as possible to avoid saying or doing anything in her current state that she would regret later. 

Two weeks in and Ava had not left her house in seven days. She had Amaya and sometimes Ray or Nate take over most of the duties she had, having them report to her instead of going out. She trusted them the most and they were the ones who understood the unique situation that she was in.

There was also the fact that Ava had not been any getting sleep. She spent hours working on repairs for other people or training in her basement to tire herself out enough to fall asleep but nothing was working. She had tried everything short of having someone knock her unconscious. 

When she was seeing Sara nearly everyday, she felt comfortable enough that she could get a couple hours of rest when she left the smaller blonde. But now that there was no contact at all, Ava was restless. She couldn’t calm her racing mind enough to fall asleep.

Ava was constantly fighting herself as every fiber of her being was telling her to go to her mate. 

She would continue to stay away though.

She was giving her mate the space she needed and the time she asked for. If she went to Sara now, she didn’t know how the other woman would take it. The only time she heard anything about her was when Nate and Ray went over to fix up the porch she broke. The two men would give her mini updates about how Sara was, but her mate barely interacted with them and so it did little to satiate Ava.

Ava startles, shaking herself from her thoughts when she hears someone knock on her door. She stands from her place on the couch and opens the door, being met by a platter wielding Amaya.

“Hey.” The other woman greets. “Your mom asked me to give this to you. Thought I’d drop it off now before it got dark.” 

Ava opens the door wider to let her in, taking what looked like lasagne from her hands. “Thanks.”

Amaya smiles and takes a moment to look the Alpha over. She could see the physical signs of the stress the taller blonde was feeling. There were bags under her eyes and she moved a little sluggishly, her stance looking tired and somewhat defeated. Amaya knew that as time went on, it would only get worse.

“Are you going to go see her anytime soon?” Amaya asks, knowing Ava understood who the ‘her’ in question was.

Ava shakes her head, walking towards her kitchen. “You know I can’t. She needs time and I have to respect that.”

Amaya follows close behind, “Can you handle more time? Can you suffer through much more of this for longer?” She asks. Ava wasn’t just her alpha, she was her friend and it hurt her to see the woman looking so miserable.

“I have to.” Ava says in resolution, placing the platter she had in her hands onto the kitchen counter.

“Have you even told her what this would do to you? Does she know what’s happening?” Amaya asks in concern. She knew her friend and she was almost certain she had not gone into detail about what prolonged distance to her unclaimed mate would do to her when she had told Sara.

Ava’s silence was answer enough. 

“She doesn’t know?” Amaya asks in exasperation, dropping down to sit on one of the chairs beside the dining room table. “Ava, why didn’t you tell her? She wouldn’t be taking this long if she knew. Who knows when she might be ready to face you? It’s been two weeks and you’re torturing yourself going on like this. You have to go see her.” Amaya tries to reason with the alpha.

Ava leans against the kitchen counter, sighing. “I didn’t want to influence her decision in any way. I don’t want her staying with me out of some twisted sense of obligation.”

“You and I both know it’s not like that.” Amaya argues. “We don’t get to choose who it happens with. You and Sara are _meant_ to be together. You’re putting yourselves through unnecessary pain.”

“She’s not like us Amaya! She’s human. She doesn’t understand how much weight this carries. She shouldn’t have to be forced into being with me. I won’t do that to her.”

Amaya stands, walking towards the alpha and leaning on the island just opposite of where Ava was. “Sara may not be like us, but she’s still your mate. You can’t be the only one feeling the effects of this. I saw how she was with you, when you introduced us. The way she looked at you, Ava she’s not unaffected by this. Letting this much time go by is dangerous Ava. It’s irresponsible.”

Ava looks away from the other woman, trying her best to seem unaffected. She couldn’t let herself be swayed into seeing Sara now. Not when she’s held on for so long and definitely not when her mate made no requests to see her. 

Amaya releases a heavy sigh, pushing herself off the counter. She would drop the conversation for a moment. “Nate said he saw some people with her.”

That seemed to get Ava’s attention.

“Two women. I think they’re her friends. They had some luggage with them so they might be staying for a while.” Amaya says, watching the blonde for any sort of reaction.

Ava nods, jaw clenching and hands gripping the counter with maybe just a little too much force as she tries to push down the intense feeling of jealousy and unease she was experiencing at the thought of other people being around her mate, sleeping in the same space, touching her. “She’s not alone. That’s good.” She manages to get out through gritted teeth.

The reaction doesn’t escape Amaya who had been watching Ava keenly. “I don’t think they see her like that.” She says, trying to put her friend at ease.

“I uh- I know. I just can’t help feeling like this.” Ava says, cursing herself for her lack of control.

“You feel this way now, when it’s just her friends. What are you going to do if it’s someone she cares about? What if next time it’s not a friend. What are you going to do if the next time, it’s someone who really wants her. Wants to be with her.” Amaya knew she was treading on dangerous waters. She knew she shouldn’t be taunting the alpha like this but she needed Ava to fully understand the other, more dangerous implications her distancing herself from Sara might have.

It wasn’t just the physical and emotional toll it may have on them both. But if someone were to try and come between them, the results would be catastrophic. 

“Can you live with the thought of her with someone else? Tell me you can stand the thought of someone other than you being with her, kissing her, touching her.” Amaya backs away slightly as she hears Ava release an angry growl. She keeps going nonetheless. Her friend needed to hear this. “She won’t understand it but it wont feel right for her. And it definitely won’t feel right for you.”

Ava closes her eyes, trying to take deep calming breaths so as to not lash out and hurt Amaya in any way. She knew what the other woman was doing and the logical part of her understood and agreed with every word. She knew that she and Sara were meant to be together and she knew she would not be able to take it if Sara found someone else. The mere thought of it made Ava want to throw up; but she would not do anything to influence her mate. 

Amaya knew she should stop but if she had to rile her friend up a little to get her to see some sense, she would. “There’s a full moon in two weeks. Do you think you can control yourelf enough to stay away then?” She asks and Ava opens her eyes to look at her. 

“I had to knock you unconscious the last time. It took three of us to hold you back and that was before all of this. I won’t let anyone do that again. It’s too dangerous, for us and for you.”

Amaya takes in the alpha’s tensed stance and chooses to let up for now. “You and Sara are an inevitability. This thing you’re putting yourself through, it’s unnecessary and you and I both know that the longer you stay away, the less control you have. Think about what you might do if this goes on for much longer.” 

Amaya gives Ava one last loaded look before turning away and walking out. She takes a moment to think once she’s outside before coming to a decision. 

She would wait until Sara’s friends were gone before talking to the smaller blonde herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked this one.
> 
> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr (nightowl1899). Feel free to send me some prompt ideas if you have any.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the late update! I started Uni again and I am swamped with all the work I have to do.
> 
> Some Amaya in this one.

Chapter 10

Sara gives Zari and Nora one last hug before letting them leave with the promise that they would be back as soon as they had the time.

Her friends had stayed for three days and as much as she missed them and loved having them with her, their presence did nothing to quell her need to go to Ava. The woman was all she could think about and the longer she stayed away, the more she felt the need to see her.

Sara stands by her door watching as her friends drive away, leaving her alone with her thoughts once again. She enters her house as soon as their car is out of sight, heading for the kitchen to make herself some tea; needing something to calm her racing mind.

Sara had done a lot of self reflecting over the last few days and she had yet to come to any sort of decision. Sara was stumped. She didn’t know what to do. It had been well over two weeks since she had asked Ava for time to think and in that time, she was still unable to wrangle her feelings together long enough make a decision. Quite frankly, she was pissing herself off.

The situation she was in was unique and she had no one to talk to about any of it. There weren’t any books about how to react when the woman you’re falling for comes out as a werewolf, tells you you’re her mate and asks to bite you. Well, Ava hadn’t asked, but it was implied. 

She sure as hell couldn’t drag Zari and Nora into this mess. She couldn’t even if she wanted to. She last thing she wanted to do was betray Ava’s trust by spilling her secrets.

Ava.

Sara hadn’t been able to make a decision yet but if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that she missed the other woman. 

The longer she went without seeing Ava, the more she felt the same peculiar emotion she had been feeling since Ava walked out of her home. It was like something inside of her was missing. It was an ache and she didn’t know what it was exactly, but everything she did felt wrong somehow. Like being here without Ava was _wrong_.

Sara’s thoughts were interrupted by three solid knocks on her front door. 

She walked towards it in confusion, wondering what it as that her friends had forgotten. Nora and Zari had left less than half an hour ago and it would have been no trouble for them to turn back if they had to.

Sara opens the door and is more than a little surprised at who was standing on the other side.

“Amaya?” She asks, staring at Amaya in confusion. The other woman stood outside her door equipped with a small smile and a paper bag in her hands.

“Hi, can I uh- can I come in?” Amaya asks as non-threateningly as she could, silently hoping the blonde wasn’t so freaked out about everything that she wouldn’t talk to her. She had originally planned to wait another day before she came to Sara but she could not stand seeing Ava mope around in pain any longer.

Sara looks at Amaya for a moment, contemplating whether or not she should let her in before deciding that she should and opening her door wider, allowing the other woman to step inside; seemingly deciding that she wasn’t a threat. 

Sara leads her towards the kitchen, moving to pull the kettle she had been using away from the stove. “Tea?” She asks, reaching into a cupboard to grab another cup when the brunette nods with a quiet ‘please’.

Amaya lets the smaller blonde work on making their drinks for a moment before speaking. “Ava didn’t send me by the way. In case you were wondering.”

Sara glances back at Amaya, nodding. “Okay.” She had wondered for a quick second if Ava had sent Amaya. She found that she wouldn’t have minded if she had. Sara had not made contact with the blonde werewolf in over two weeks and she understood if Ava wanted to check on her.

“I uh, I brought you this.” Amaya says, clearing her throat and holding the paper bag she had in her hands to Sara. “I saw you look at it when you stopped by my shop and thought you’d like it.”

In truth, Amaya didn’t want to go to the other woman’s house without any other reason other than to come and talk to her. The gift was more of an excuse than anything else. That and it would have been impolite to come to her house without anything.

“You didn’t have to bring me anything.” Sara says, reaching into the bag and pulling out a small antique wooden jewelry box. She recognized it as the same one she had been admiring the first time she had met Amaya in her shop.

“Consider it a late house warming present.” Amaya waves her hand, using the time Sara was inspecting the box to _really_ take a look at the shorter blonde. 

Immediately, she noticed the tired smile and the bags under her eyes that were not present the first time they met and Amaya knew she had been right when she told Ava about the effects the distance would have on not just her, but Sara as well.

Sara smiles at the woman in thanks, setting the gift down on her kitchen counter before retrieving the two cups of tea she had made, promptly handing one over to Amaya.

“I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but is there a reason you came to see me?” Sara asks, moving to sit on one of the stools in front of the kitchen counter. “Is everything okay?”

Amaya takes a sip of her tea, trying to figure out how she would start this conversation without spooking Sara. “I don’t normally do this.” She says, “I don’t get involved in these types of situations, but Ava is my friend. I know her. Well enough to know that she didn’t tell you the complete truth.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asks. 

“She didn’t want to force anything on you and she’s right. This, being with her, it has to be your choice. You’re not one of us. You don’t fully understand what’s happening and I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re feeling.” Amaya moves closer to the blonde woman, gauging her reaction before sitting herself down on the stool next to her when she was satisfied that Sara didn’t look like she was ready to run away screaming.

She turns to face Sara, setting the cup she had in her hands on her lap as she speaks. “But this force, this bond you have with Ava, it’s not something you can understand, not completely. I’ve known about this my whole life and I still don’t understand how I can carry so much love for just one person. It’s indescribable.” Amaya looks down at the cup in her hands, letting herself smile as her thought drifted briefly to her own mate.

Sara takes a moment to process what the woman in front of her was saying. Amaya seemed to know what she was talking about and Sara was tired of feeling the way she was. Maybe having Amaya come to her was a good thing. At the very least, she could have someone to talk to. 

“I don’t know what to do.”

Amaya looks up when she hears the blonde speak.

“I feel things for Ava.” Sara starts, finding comfort in the soft smile Amaya was sending her way. “I feel all of these emotions and I don’t know what to do. She makes me feel cared for and safe and _loved_ , and I don’t know how that can happen. I haven’t known her for very long and none of this makes a lot of sense.” 

Amaya feels just about ready to jump for joy as she listens to Sara’s words. The smaller blonde wasn’t unaffected by the bond and she clearly had feelings for Ava. 

All she had to do now was give both women a little nudge.

“It’s scary. Not knowing.” Amaya says, setting the cup in her hands on the counter. “But as crazy as it may sound, you need to forget about trying to find any sort of explanation for this because there isn’t one. It’s just _there_ and fighting it isn’t good for either of you. It’s hurting Ava and I don’t think you’re feeling all that great either.”

“What do you mean it’s hurting Ava?” Sara asks and Amaya is quick to notice the concern in her voice. “Is she okay?”

Amaya took a quick moment to think about what it was that she could say. On one hand, Ava probably didn’t want her to tell Sara about what she was going through for fear of influencing her decision. But on the other hand, Amaya knew telling Sara would do no harm. She should have been told in the first place and with the way both women were acting, all of this would only end in one way. It looked to her like Sara had already made up her mind; whether she knew it or not.

“No. She’s not okay.” Amaya sighs. 

Sara straightens up in her seat, suddenly feeling an overwhelming amount of worry at the though of Ava being hurt in any way. “What happened? She was fine the last time I saw her.” 

“This thing you guys are doing, not seeing each other, it’s taking a toll on her.” Amaya says, shifting to move her seat closer to Sara who was listening to her with rapt attention. “I don’t know why but it’s not good for us to stay away from our mates for long. Not without at least checking in. It’s worse since you’re not technically Ava’s mate.” _Yet_. Amaya thought. If she played this right, she would be pushing both Sara and Ava in the right direction.

“I don’t understand. What’s happening to her?” Sara moves to put the cup of tea she had in her hands on the counter next to Amaya’s. 

“It’s complicated.” Amaya says, hurrying to explain as Sara sends a blank look her way. “She hasn’t left her house in over a week. She’s short tempered, she won’t talk to anyone, I don’t know if she’s eating enough and I’m pretty sure she’s not sleeping at all. She can’t. She just- she’s exhausted.” She was in some physical pain too but Amaya wasn’t going to make Sara feel worse than she already seemed to be feeling.

“Is it because of me? Did I do that?” Sara asks guiltily. Had she known that staying away from Ava would hurt her in any way, she wouldn’t have done it. The thought that the other woman was hurting this much because of her made Sara feel sick.

Amaya leans forward, taking the younger woman’s hands in her own. “Hey it’s not your fault. You didn’t know. She should have told you but Ava-”

“Wanted to give me time. I know. She gave me two weeks and now she’s hurting.” Sara says, cutting Amaya off. She pulls her hands away from hers and moves to stand up. “Just tell me what I can do.” 

“What?” Amaya asks in mild surprise. She wasn’t expecting that question. She thought she might have had to do a little more convincing but the smaller woman seemed to be determined to do something.

“What can I do?” Sara asks again, staring at Amaya who was still seated on the stool. “I didn’t know that anything would happen. How do I fix this?” 

“A phone call should be okay if you don’t want to see her.” Amaya stands, dusting off the nonexistent dust from her jeans. “But if you’re ready, I think just spending some time with her would help. It would be good to have you close.”

Sara nods in acknowledgement, her decision already made. She would go see Ava today. 

She thought back to what Amaya said about Ava not eating and moved to rummage through her cupboards for a container. She had made a heap of cookies for Nora and Zari to take with them and she had extras she knew Ava would like.

“Listen, I’ve meddled enough. I should probably go.” Amaya says, smiling in amusement as the small blonde responds with a quick ‘okay’, barely looking up from where she was stuffing cookies into a container.

“Sara.” Amaya calls right as she’s about to leave the kitchen.

Sara looks up, turning her attention from the cookies and onto the taller woman. “Yeah?”

“If you do go, could you maybe just stay until she falls asleep?” Amaya asks. She knew Sara would go but it couldn’t hurt to ask her to say longer than she probably would. Ava needed sleep and Amaya knew she wouldn’t get it unless Sara was there.

Sara nods, a small smile on her lips. “Okay.”

“Okay. I’ll see you around.” Amaya gives her one last look before heading out. She knew she would see Sara soon. 

Amaya starts to make her way back to her own house, shaking her head at the amount of meddling she’d done for the two women. “Stubborn idiots.”

…

Sara stands in front of Ava’s front door for a good five minutes before she musters up the courage to knock. She stood bundled up in her coat, hat on her head and tupperware filled with chocolate chip cookies in her hands as she waited for Ava to open the door.

Sara couldn’t help but feel nervous as she waited. The time she asked for, the time Ava so easily gave her, had been causing the other woman pain. Ava had been so willing to let Sara think everything through that she knowingly let herself get hurt. 

“Amaya, I told you I don’t want to- Sara.” 

Ava had opened the door, thinking it was Amaya. The woman had been checking up on her more and more the longer she went without seeing her mate and as much as she appreciated it, Ava was starting to get annoyed.

Her annoyance however, was replaced with surprise as soon as she saw Sara standing in front of her. 

“Hi.” Was all Sara could get out now that Ava was standing in front of her and the guilt that she was already feeling doubled as she took a moment to take Ava in. The taller blonde was wearing sweatpants and an old band shirt, looking absolutely exhausted. Like she hadn’t slept in days. Even then, Sara thought she still looked absolutely beautiful.

“I uh-Hi.” Ava stutters, still in a bit of shock. She was half convinced that she was never going to see Sara again and now that she was in front of her, standing out in the cold, she didn’t particularly know what to say.

Just seeing Sara and having her stand so close to her after not seeing her for so long, made Ava happy. But she made sure to try and be cautious. Ava wasn’t sure why Sara was here and it wouldn’t be smart to get her hopes up.

Even if every fiber of Ava’s being was telling her to take her mate in her arms, to hold her, she held herself back. Using restraint she didn’t even know she still had.

They stood in silence for a good minute before Ava saw a shiver run over Sara’s body and remembered that it was nearly December and the weather wasn’t exactly warm. 

“Oh! You’re cold. You don’t have to if you’re not comfortable but do you want to come in?” Ava asks, holding the door open wide enough for Sara to come in while also giving her the option not to. All the while chastising herself for letting Sara stay out in the cold.

Sara nods, quick to notice how cautious Ava was acting with her and knowing immediately that she didn’t like it. It was her own fault of course, but she hadn’t known. 

Ava opens the door wider, allowing Sara to step inside. She lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when Sara takes her coat off, seemingly making herself more comfortable. The thought that Sara appeared to be at ease and not at all scared around her calmed Ava slightly.

“I brought you cookies.” Sara says, handing the the container of cookies to Ava who was staring at her like she would bolt at the slightest movement.

“Thanks.” Ava takes the cookies and makes her way into her kitchen, looking back to make sure Sara was following her. 

Now that she was here, Ava couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of her. It was almost like Sara would disappear if she looked away for too long. 

Sara remained silent, planting herself on one of the chairs beside the dining room table as Ava went to place the cookies on the kitchen island before taking the seat in front of her, the table in between them.

They both sat in silence, neither one making a sound. 

Sara was inspecting Ava, trying to see if there were any other physical signs that she was in any kind of pain. Other than the bags under her eyes and the tired way she seemed to move.

Ava in turn, was simply looking at Sara, trying to see if she could read anything about what the shorter blonde would do or say. Surely having Sara come to her was a good thing. She didn’t think Sara would come over if she wasn’t at least ready to talk.

A small smile makes its way onto Sara’s lips as she sees Ava stifle a yawn. 

“Sorry, I’m just a little-”

“Tired. I know.” Sara cuts her off, standing from her place on the chair. “Why don’t you go get some sleep. We can talk later.”

“No no it’s fine. It’s only 3 o’clock, I’m not tired.” Ava stands, panicking a little at the thought of Sara leaving and trying to shake off her tiredness, not wanting Sara to go. Having her mate here was relaxing her. Her close proximity was quickly putting Ava at ease and all Ava could think about at the moment was how tired she was. 

“Ava, you’re clearly exhausted. You need sleep.” Sara argues, making her way out of the kitchen and towards Ava’s bedroom with the taller blonde right at her heels. Right away, Sara noticed how dark the room was. It was neat and everything was in place, but the curtains were fully drawn, making it so that none of the afternoon light was let into the room.

“I’m fine.” Ava insists, catching the sweater Sara had taken from where she’d left it on her bed earlier that morning and tossed at her. “Sara, I swear I’m oka- what are you doing?” Ava cuts herself off, curiously watching her mate dig through her dresser.

Sara had seen the way Ava seemed to panic at thought that she would leave and made a split second decision to stay. The other woman needed sleep and if Sara was being honest, so did she. If Amaya was telling the truth, which Sara believed she was, then staying here would do them both some good.

Besides, it wasn’t the first time one of them had stayed at the others house. She had slept here before and she knew where everything was. And Sara was about ninety percent sure that Ava wouldn’t mind.

“I’m borrowing a shirt.” Sara finds herself one of Ava’s oversized shirts and smiles a little in triumph at her find. The size of the shirt made it so she wouldn’t have to borrow anything else.

“Why?” Ava asks, confused as Sara walks to the bathroom and closes the door halfway, just enough to cover herself while she changed.

“I don’t want to sleep in my jeans?” Sara says, changing into the shirt. It was oversized on Ava so when Sara put it on, it went up to her mid thigh.

“You’re staying?” Ava asks in surprise. She thought for sure that Sara would leave.

“Yes. Amaya came to talk to me and before you say anything, I’m glad she did. I promise I want to be here.” Sara made quick work of folding her clothes. “She also said that you haven’t been getting any sleep and this might help.” Amaya didn’t say anything about Sara needing to sleep _with_ Ava but she missed the other woman and she was tired too; sue her.

Sara walks out of the bathroom, placing her folded clothes on top of the dresser before jumping onto Ava’s bed, burying herself under the covers and making herself comfortable. Sara figured that with the skittish way Ava was acting around her, she needed to be more forward and show Ava that she was completely comfortable being around her.

Ava stands dumbfounded beside the bed as she watched Sara burrow into the covers. She had to admit though, that having Sara in her bed wearing nothing but her shirt did things to her. 

“Ava, for God’s sake please just get in here.” Sara groans, dropping her head on the pillow watching as Ava did nothing. 

Ava stands, staring at Sara for a good minute before shaking off her shock and eventually making her way onto the bed and slowly getting under the covers. She made sure to stay on her side, as far away from Sara as possible, not knowing if her mate wanted her anywhere near her.

She didn’t like like it. Being this close to Sara without being able to hold her. Ava lay on the bed in silence trying to fight off her sleep, her whole body tensed as she tries so hard not to get any closer to Sara who was laying on her side, presumably looking at her.

“Ava.” Sara calls quietly, noticing how tensed the other woman was.

“Hmm.”

“Relax.”

“I’m relaxed.” Ava shifts a little in place, trying to appear more relaxed knowing now that Sara was definitely watching her.

Sara rolls her eyes. “You’re not.” 

“I am.” Ava insists, making a show of shuffling in place, still laying on her back and looking up at the ceiling.

Sara sighs heavily in exasperation. “Oh my god, Aves. What are you scared I’ll bite you?” Ava tenses further and Sara realizes what she just said. There was a moment of silence before she burst out into laughter.

Ava turns to her side, facing Sara and looking at her incredulously. “Are you- Are you laughing?” She thought for sure that Sara would bolt as soon as she said what she said. She had seemed pretty freaked out about the whole biting thing when Ava had told her and now, here she was, making jokes. Laughing about it.

Sara doesn’t say anything as she nods, choosing instead to take deep breaths to steady her breathing as she starts to calm down.

“Oh c’mon. That was funny.” Sara says, smiling at the adorably confused look on Ava’s face. 

She reaches up, grabbing hold of Ava’s arm. “Ava, it’s fine. I swear. I want to be here. It’s okay.”

Ava’s body eases up almost immediately her body reacting to the feeling of Sara’s touch. She lets herself relax as it seemed that Sara had no problem at all touching her. 

Sara notices the change right away and scoots closer, shifting the blankets away from where they were bundled around her and moving to cuddle up into Ava’s side. “This okay?” Sara asks, burying her face in Ava’s neck. Her touch seemed to calm Ava down and as soon as she settled into her, Sara realized that Ava did the same to her. For the first time in over two weeks, Sara felt at ease. Safe.

“Yes.” Ava whispers into the smaller blonde’s hair, quick to wrap her arms around Sara and relishing in the feeling of finally being able to hold her mate after seventeen days of not seeing her at all. 

“We’ll talk when we’ve both gotten some sleep, okay?” Sara mumbles into Ava’s neck, already feeling herself drifting off.

Ava nods, too tired to say anything at this point. She closes her eyes and lets her mate lull her into the sleep that had been evading her for weeks. She had a feeling everything would work itself out for the better when they woke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked this one. 
> 
> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr (nightowl1899). Feel free to send in some prompt ideas if you have any and I'll try to get to them soon.
> 
> P.S. Since I'm back at Uni, I won't have as much time to write so I'm not entirely sure when the next update will be. But I will try my best to get a chapter out at least once a week. Thank you guys for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the really late update. I've just been really swamped with work for Uni.
> 
> I hope you like this one.

Chapter 11 

Ava wakes slowly, shifting a little as she feels a weight laying on top of her and frowning as she is unable to move her left arm properly. She opens her eyes and is met with a face full of blonde hair, a smile makes its way on her lips as she remembers what or rather who that weight was.

Sara was still asleep. Practically on top of Ava now, having drifted closer in her sleep. She had one arm tucked under herself while the other was wrapped around Ava, her hand holding Ava’s shirt in a tight grip. Her face was still tucked in Ava’s neck, sleeping soundly as the other woman slowly started to wake up.

Ava reaches up with her free hand, removing it from its place around her mate’s waist to gently smooth her hair down, feeling sightly amused as Sara barely even twitched as she did. She must have been exhausted.

Ava craned her neck a little to look at the clock on her bedside table, careful not to jostle her sleeping blonde. 

_2:43 am._

“Oh wow.” Ava mutters under her breath in mild surprise. They had slept for nearly twelve hours if her math was right. Well, _she_ slept for almost twelve hours. Sara was still sleeping.

Her kind didn’t really need as much sleep as the average human person. Most days, she could get by with just a couple of hours. So it surprised her to know just how long she was asleep for. The weeks she was away from Sara had definitely taken a toll.

Ava took stock of herself then. Both she and Sara seemed to have bundled themselves under the blankets on Ava’s bed and Ava knew immediately that it must have been Sara’s doing as it wasn’t something she herself was used to. 

She ran very hot all the time and there wasn’t ever a need to be under the blankets. She mostly had them for show until Sara started coming over and there was a need for her to actually have them for someone to use. 

In the time that she’s known her, Ava noticed that her mate got cold very easily and had a propensity for wrapping herself with the nearest blanket she could find whenever she could. It was endearing and adorable and Ava was only too happy to indulge her, buying more and more of the blankets whenever she spotted a particularly soft looking one in town. She had even managed to sneak a couple in Sara’s house, stuffing them in her linen closet when the shorter blonde wasn’t looking.

Ava shifted slowly, wary of the sleeping woman as she moved her left arm to make herself more comfortable all the while thanking whatever deity was out there for her biology. Her arm would have surely been hurting now if she were entirely human. 

“Hmm no.” Sara mumbles sleepily, moving slightly. Ava freezes, arm dropping back down to wrap around Sara’s waist as she snuggles in closer, still mostly sleeping. Ava starts running her hand up and down the smaller woman’s back soothingly, an action that seemed to settle her into falling back into a deeper sleep.

Ava continues the action for a few minutes, letting herself enjoy the feeling of having Sara in her arms after not having her at all for what felt like ages. She stops abruptly when her hand drifts lower and she feels Sara’s shirt, _her_ shirt, bunched around her hips; probably having ridden up when they were sleeping. Ava remembers then that her mate had gone to bed wearing underwear, her shirt and most likely, nothing else.

“Of course.” _As if her control hasn’t been tested enough._ Ava moves her hand back up to rest high on Sara’s back, dropping her head down on her pillow with a groan.

She had been way too exhausted to feel anything other than tired when Sara had come over but now that she had gotten her sleep, she had a clear head; and all she could seem to think about was how her mate was pressed up against her wearing almost nothing but _her_ shirt. She was suddenly very thankful that she had the foresight to wear sweatpants and not something that would let Sara’s bare thighs touch her in any way.

Now, werewolves were notoriously possessive over their mates and as much as Ava tried her damnest to fight those urges when she was around Sara, she could only take so much; and their current situation was no help at all. 

All she could think about now was how close Sara was and how she was choosing to find comfort in her.

Ava closed her eyes and took deep steadying breaths. 

She wanted Sara with every fiber of her being and it took an unbelievable amount of control not to do anything about it. She was able to keep better control of herself when she was able to see her everyday, the time she spent with Sara was enough for her to keep herself relatively calm. But now that it had been weeks since she last saw Sara, and she wasn’t distracted by how exhausted she was, Ava was starting to realize just how much of her control was slipping through her fingers.

As much as she didn’t want to, Ava knew she had to leave the room. If only for a moment; just to compose herself lest she do something something stupid and scare Sara off for good.

Ava moved slowly, carefully trying to slide from under a sleeping Sara. She was convinced that if she moved slow enough, the other woman wouldn’t even notice considering she seemed dead asleep.

Of course, because the universe seemed to have it out for her, nothing Ava planned with Sara went to plan. Her mate was not having it and as soon as she felt Ava try to slip away, she moved closer, the hand clutching onto Ava’s shirt tightening as she let out a small groan in displeasure as being moved.

If she weren’t struggling so much, Ava would have found it funny, how she had waited for literal weeks to be this close to Sara and now here she was, trying to get away.

Ava waited a few minutes before trying again, cursing herself as the smaller woman slowly shifts into consciousness with a sigh.

“What’s goin’ on?” Sara mumbles, face still buried in Ava’s neck. Her voice was raspy with sleep and she had yet to move away.

“Nothing. You can go back to sleep.” Ava says, starting to rub circles on her back, now feeling guilty at having woken up her sleeping mate.

Sara lifts her head from it’s place on Ava’s chest after a few moments, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stealing a quick glance at the clock on Ava’s beside table before moving back into place. “I’m not tired anymore. Are you?” Sara asks and Ava has to suppress a pleased growl from escaping her lips at feeling Sara’s lips moving against her neck.

“That’s good. And no, I’m not.” Ava replies, trying to calm herself as Sara nods against her.

“I missed you.” Sara sighs content to continue to use Ava as her pillow. “I’m sorry I took so long, I was just confused. I’m not anymore.” She wasn’t lying. 

Now that she was here with her, Sara realized just how much she wanted to be with the other woman. There were still some things she needed to know and there were certainly things she still did not understand, but she found that she didn’t particularly care. She wanted Ava and she was done trying to fight it. Trying to do so would just hurt them both. It already hurt Ava.

“You’re not?” Ava asks, resuming the motion of stroking Sara’s back. Her mate seemed to enjoy it and it gave her something else to focus on.

“Not at all.” Sara shakes her head, moving the hand that was holding Ava’s shirt so that it rested on her chest. “I mean, obviously there’s a lot I want to know and some stuff I don’t fully understand, but I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Okay.” Ava says with a small smile, happy with what Sara was implying but still actively trying to keep her cool. A feat made even more difficult as Sara started to run her fingers over her collarbone, seemingly content to lay there in silence.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like it. On the contrary, she absolutely loved that Sara was comfortable enough with her presence that she was being this affectionate. It was the fact that Ava wasn’t sure how long she could hold on to her control before she slipped. She didn’t know what she would do if she did.

The longer she laid there with Sara the more she realized that the distance did more to her than she had initially thought. She noticed it as soon as Sara had come in the day before but she wasn’t in the right state of mind to _really_ notice; Sara smelt different. 

When they were seeing each other everyday Ava’s scent was practically all over her. Any werewolf with half a brain would know Sara was her mate. The two weeks of distance made it so that Ava’s scent was almost completely gone. 

There was still a hint of it, most likely the result of having held her so close for a few hours but it wasn’t enough and as much as she tried not to, knowing how irrational it seemed, Ava felt angry. 

Not at Sara, never at her, but at the people who were around her when she wasn’t. She could smell them on her mate and the not so rational part of her felt threatened. 

She couldn’t stop the low growl that escaped her then and she immediately knew that there was no way Sara hadn’t heard.

Sara felt the rumble on Ava’s chest and leaned back to look at her, using her elbow for support. “Hey, what’s wrong?” She asks, noticing Ava’s shift in mood.

Ava does her best to appear calmer than she’s actually feeling. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“It’s something if you’re all growly.” Sara says, eyebrow raised. She could tell something was bothering the the woman and she wasn’t going to let up until she found out what it was. As much as she appreciated it, she was tired of having Ava make herself feel bad trying to make her comfortable. It was her turn now, to make sure Ava was okay.

“It’s nothing. Everything’s fine.” Ava tries to reassure Sara. Although, it felt more like she was telling herself. She was feeling a mix of emotions and she wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. 

Ava didn’t think something as simple as Sara’s scent being slightly different would bother her so much, but it did. The thought of Sara being so close to other people and not knowing exactly _what_ they meant to the smaller blonde was infuriating to Ava. For all she knew, they could have been something, _anything_ to Sara and Ava had virtually no right to do anything about it. 

It frustrated Ava to be feeling this was but it was all she could think about now, and judging by how she felt, it might just be what causes her to break.

Sara lets out a heavy sigh, “Look Ava, I’m trying here. I want to be here with you. I don’t know what I can do to make you see it but I care about you and before you take that the wrong way, no I don’t mean as a friend. I have feelings for you. I’m trying to understand all of this but I can’t do that if you won’t tell me things. Now would you please just tell me what’s wrong? And do not say nothing.” Sara finishes her rant with an expectant look at the taller blonde.

Ava, for her part wasn’t sure how she felt. She was over the moon at having Sara want her, still angry about how different her scent was, confused about everything she was feeling, and a whole host of other emotions she couldn’t understand. On top of that, she was still actively trying to fight her overwhelming desire for the other woman.

“Well?” Sara asks, looking at her expectantly.

Ava saw no reason to keep anything from her mate at this point so she did as she was told. “You just- do you remember when I told you about how Darren could smell me on you? How you had my scent?” 

Sara nods, a small smile gracing her lips in satisfaction as Ava starts to talk. “Yeah, you were all huffy about it.”

“I was not huffy.” 

“You were.” Sara insists, mildly amused at Ava’s defensiveness.

Ava shakes her head in exasperation. “Okay. Well, you don’t anymore. Have my scent, I mean.”

“Is that bad?” Sara asks, trying to understand. 

“I know it’s stupid, but it’s a werewolf thing and I just- I don’t know.” Ava turns her head to look at the ceiling as she struggles to find the words to express how she felt. _She_ didn’t even fully understand how she was feeling.

“Hey, it’s not stupid if it’s bothering you.” Sara places a comforting hand on Ava’s chest, having noticed how uncomfortable she looked. “Is there anything you can do to fix that? Is there anything _I_ can do?”

“I don’t know of any quick solutions. Just time, I guess.” Ava says with a sigh. She was lying of course, but she wasn’t entirely sure how Sara would feel about the other things she could do. 

“Are you sure?” Sara asks, not completely believing the other woman. Ava nods but continues to avoid her gaze and Sara had a feeling it was because she wasn’t telling her the whole truth. 

“Ava.” Sara continues to push, nudging Ava slightly.

“I don’t know Sara. There’s really nothing, short of rubbing myself all over you.” Ava sighs with a strained smile, taking on a joking tone. In reality, it’s exactly what she would have done under more normal circumstances. It would be easier to just project her scent onto Sara. But the entire thing was very intimate and Ava was sure Sara wouldn’t appreciate it.

“Okay, well, let’s try that.” Sara shrugs.

“I know it’s wei- wait, what?” Ava asks in shock. Apparently she was wrong. 

“If this thing is bothering you so much, I don’t mind trying that.” Sara says as if it were of no inconvenience to her at all. 

Ava had gone through a lot to make sure she was comfortable with everything that was going on, knowingly hurting herself in the process. If there was a way for Sara to make her hurt less, she would be more than happy to do it. Besides, the thought of Ava rubbing up against her didn’t exactly make her want to run away screaming.

Ava was more than a little confused. “I’m not following.”

“I’m saying that it’s okay. I don’t mind at all.” Sara wasn’t lying in the slightest. She _was_ okay with it. The more time she spent with Ava, the more she came to realize just how much she actually wanted to be with her; outside of whatever it was that brought them together.

Sara wanted to be with Ava. She wanted this strong, caring, protective and sometimes awkward mess of a woman. She wanted to be with her. At this point, Sara could care less about fate or whatever werewolfy thing there was. It all just didn’t matter to her anymore. She was choosing to be with Ava.

She had tried the whole ‘staying away to think about things’ way, and it obviously didn’t work. She felt a longing for the other woman she hadn’t felt for anyone else and it obviously did things to Ava. Sh hadn’t been able to decide before, but a few minutes with Ava and her mind was made up. 

Ava was clearly conflicted and after all this time, still actively trying to make her comfortable and happy. If she could do something, anything to make Ava feel the same way she felt when she was with her, Sara wanted to do it.

She just needed to convince Ava, and with the way they had been dancing around each other since they met, Sara wasn’t too worried about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> I'm not sure when I will be able to update next but I promise I will finish this story. I'll try my best to update when I can. I'm definitely going to try to update once every week or two but I'm struggling to find time to write. 
> 
> You guys can find me on Tumblr (nightowl1899) if you have some questions or just wanna talk 😊


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the really long wait. I've just been super busy with Uni.
> 
> Here's a quick one for you guys.

Chapter 12

Ava searched Sara’s face for any sign of doubt or fear, only to find none at all. Sara looked at her with trusting eyes and Ava was thrown for a loop. 

“Sara, I wasn’t serious. I don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.” Ava says, shifting so she was now leaning on her elbow, still facing the smaller blonde. Of course she didn’t know _how_ she would handle everything she was feeling at the moment, but she would figure it out. Sara had just started to show acceptance and actual desire to be with her, she would not risk any of that for something as trivial as being annoyed by her scent. Even if it was killing her inside.

“But if it’ll help you then I don’t see why not.” Sara insists, straightening up so she was now sitting as she talked. “Aves, I’m not blind. I can see this is bothering you, just let me help. Please.” 

Ava didn’t know how much longer she could put up with this. She could see that Sara was serious and there was nothing but sincerity in the way she spoke, but Ava just didn’t know how she would react if she let herself get what she actually wanted. She was barely hanging on to what little restraint she had left and she had absolutely no idea what she might do if she gave in to her instincts; even if it was just for this.

Ava moves to sit up, steeling herself for the conversation that was about to happen.

“It’s just- scent marking is- it’s _intimate_.” Ava says and resists the urge to back away as Sara scoots closer in interest; if only to stop herself from just outright pouncing on the the smaller blonde. 

If she wasn’t so frustrated she would have found it comical, how quickly she went from wanting Sara so close to actively trying to put space between them. All it took was some sleep and here she was, grasping at straws.

“It’s not something we take lightly. We do it with our mates sometimes as a sign of affection and stuff but uhm- it just uh- it makes us feel a certain way. And I’m not sure what kind of effect it would have on you.” Ava was struggling to find the words to explain just how scent marking worked. She didn’t exactly want to be having this conversation but she was not about to keep anything else from Sara. Besides, it wasn’t like she could feel worse than she already was.

Ava started fidgeting with the blankets in front of her, trying to tamp down her embarrassment. “I struggle a lot, with uhm- with my control around you and I uh- I just don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable or not safe in any way.” Ava was more than a little red at this point, but she figured that Sara needed all the information before she even thought about agreeing to anything.

“Oh.” Sara felt a light blush creep onto her face as she realized what Ava was implying. She wasn’t ignorant to the fact that Ava was attracted to her and she had expressed the same feelings for Ava, barring the past two weeks. 

It was just the way Ava was talking about this ‘scent marking’ thing, she was clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable and Sara was feeding of off how she was feeling. 

Still, Sara knew she wouldn’t mind it at all. It wasn’t like Ava was propositioning her for sex. She had a feeling she wouldn’t be opposed to that either but she wasn’t about to say _that_ out loud. 

“Would it hurt me?”

“No, I don’t think it would. It’s just, a different kind of feeling.” Ava was quick to respond. “So I’ve heard. I’ve never actually done it.” She didn’t particularly know exactly _what_ it would do to herself or Sara, but she knew it wouldn’t hurt her. She wouldn’t even think about doing anything that would hurt her mate in any way.

Sara nods in understanding. If it was what Ava needed right now and it wouldn’t hurt her, then Sara didn’t see why Ava wouldn’t do it. She was just about to tell Ava about her not changing her mind in the slightest when a quick thought passed her mind. “Wait, what did you mean about you struggling for control around me?”

Ava, who was staring at the blanket she had been fidgeting with looked up as she heard Sara speak. “What?”

“You said you were struggling with your control around me. What does that mean?” Sara asked, confused.

Ava took a moment to think about how she would explain.

“Oh uhm, I talked to you about how we have these urges right? Our instincts?” 

Sara nods, grabbing hold of one of Ava’s hands when she noticed how she was tugging on the blankets, clearly nervous.

Ava was quick let go of the blanket, choosing instead to turn her attention to Sara’s rings. “You uh- you make me feel things. A lot of things really.” Ava takes a quick glance at Sara before dropping her gaze once more. It was easier to say what she needed to say if she wasn’t looking at her. “I want you, Sara. I just- I want you so much it hurts. And I have to hold myself back from the things I want to do because you don’t want me the way I want you but I just- I struggle sometimes.” _I’m struggling now_. Ava thought.

Sara took a breath as she processed everything the other woman had just said. Did Ava really believe that Sara didn’t want her in that way, when Sara had wanted her since the moment they had met? Was she not forthcoming enough with her feelings? Did she not make herself clear when she told Ava not ten minutes ago that she wanted to be with her? Did Ava not believe her?

All kinds of questions ran through Sara's mind.

Sara was just now starting to see the extent of the damage had she caused by staying away. Granted, she had not known what it would do. Ava seemed to have taken her actions as a sort of rejection.

Sara knew that there was no way she was going to let Ava think like this for another second. And with the way that the blonde werewolf was acting, she knew she had to be more forthcoming with showing Ava exactly how she felt. 

Screw slow and subtle. 

It was clear that Ava wasn’t going to do anything about the tension between them and Sara just didn’t know how many more ways she could say just how much she wanted to be with Ava. No more words. Sara knew now that she couldn’t get through to Ava that way.

Sara pulls her hands from Ava’s and moves to shift the blankets that were draped on her lap so she could move, not at all missing how Ava’s gaze dropped to her bare legs before quickly shifting to look at her face.

“Sara, what are you doi-oh god.” Whatever Ava was going to say was forgotten as Sara climbs onto her lap, effectively straddling her. Ava’s hands went to her sides, clenching the sheets in her fists and turning her face away from Sara as a low growl escaped her lips. There was no distance between them now and Ava could slowly feel herself losing it.

Sara is quick to notice Ava’s reaction and promptly grabs her face in her hands, forcing Ava to look at her and not the dresser on the other side of the room. Even as she does, the taller blonde’s gaze is fixed on the spot just to the left of Sara’s face.

“Ava, I need you to look at me.” Sara urges. 

Ava was trying her best to take deep calming breaths but because Sara was so close, she was all Ava could hone in on. It was the same intoxicating scent of vanilla, and what she had come to know as lavender, that she associated with her mate. But it was mixed with a sort of citrus and pine smell that Ava knew was from Sara’s friends. 

Of course, in her admittedly irrational state, that only served to unsettle her more.

Ava complies with the request though, jaw clenching and teeth grinding as she struggled to keep her cool. She could never deny Sara of anything but was painfully aware of her mate comfortably perched on her lap, as if she hadn’t just heard a word Ava has said in the past few minutes. 

“Ava, I need you to really hear me when I say this okay?” Sara asks, eyes trained closely on the taller blonde’s pale blue ones. “When I asked you for time, it wasn’t because of anything you did. I was confused and I needed time to process. It was _never_ about anything you did.” 

Sara’s left hand drops down to the space between Ava’s neck and shoulder, uncaring of the small growl she heard escape the woman’s lips. She knew Ava wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. “I care about you, I want to be here and I’m certainly not scared of you. Do you understand? I want you. I want you in the ways you want me. I want you in every way imaginable and I don’t care about all the other stuff, okay? We can figure that all out together. Do you understand me?”

Ava nods wordlessly, unable to say anything after all Sara had just said. She was happy of course, ecstatic even that Sara felt this way. But she had absolutely no idea what to do with that information. She didn’t know what it was exactly that she _could_ do. 

“Okay.” Sara says, seemingly satisfied with Ava’s response or lack of thereof. She notices Ava’s still stiff demeanor and drops the hand she had on Ava’s cheek to grasp the hand Ava was using to murder her poor sheets. 

“Aves, you can touch me. It’s okay.” Sara says, trying to dislodge Ava’s hand from her grip on the sheets, unsuccessfully.

Ava shakes her head. She wanted to touch Sara, so much. But she just didn’t know what she would do if she did. For once in her life, Ava was scared. She was at a total loss of her control.

Sara for one, was getting more worried by the second. She did the only thing she could think of and wrapped her arms around the taller blonde, burying her face into her neck as she did. 

“Ava, c’mon. Stop trying to hold back. It’s okay.” She urges, but the other woman wasn’t budging. In fact, apart from the quiet growls and the rumbling of her chest, she wasn’t moving at all.

After a few minutes of trying to coax Ava into trying to relax, Sara tried a different approach. One she wasn’t sure would even work. “You know what, fine. I can go. If you don’t want me here, you could have just said so.” Sara huffed in mock frustration, pushing back from Ava and moving to get off of her.

Sara’s words shook Ava from her daze and the taller blonde felt herself snap. Ava would hold a lot of things back, but she would never, _never_ have her mate think she didn’t want her. She was quick to pull Sara back into her with a snarl, hands gripping her waist to keep her close. 

“Oh!” A sharp gasp escapes Sara’s lips as she suddenly finds herself flat on her back with Ava on top of her, settled between her legs.

“No.” The taller blonde looked at her with unmasked desire clouding her now glowing red eyes and Sara just knew she’d pushed Ava to her limit.

For a split second, Sara though that maybe she had gone too far, but that quickly went away as Ava moved her left hand from it’s place on her waist, using her forearm to brace herself right beside Sara’s head as she moved her up so she was laying comfortably with her head on the pillows.

Sara’s heart melted. Even in the state she was in, Ava was making sure that Sara was okay. She was still trying to keep Sara comfortable. It was like this was Ava’s way of showing that as wrecked as she felt at the moment, Sara’s comfort was still her priority. 

She was showing Sara that she wasn’t in any danger; not that Sara felt scared in any way. In fact, fear was the farthest thing from what she was feeling at the moment. For a second Sara wondered just when the room had gotten so hot.

“I’m sorry!” Ava snaps out of whatever trance she was in long enough to notice what she had just done and moved to lean away from Sara. She tries to keep her eyes in check, having felt them change when she had all but grabbed Sara, but she found herself unable to. The fact that Sara didn’t seem bothered by them did comfort her in a way. 

“Hey, no.” Sara was quick to pull Ava back down, hooking her leg over Ava’s to keep her where she was. The older woman had panic in her eyes and she looked like she was about to bolt. “It’s okay.” She wasn’t about to let Ava pull away now. Not when she was finally letting herself go for once. 

Ava was startled at the motion but she let Sara pull her back in. There was no way she was going to move away if her mate wanted her close. Sara started to run her hands through her hair and she felt herself starting to relax, unconsciously melting into the smaller blonde with a pleased rumble. Ava made sure to feel for any change in her mate as she slowly leaned down so her face was buried in Sara’s neck.

“I haven’t changed my mind. You can do what you need, Aves.” Sara says, starting to run her fingers up and down Ava’s back. This wasn’t exactly the position she thought she would be in when she came over to see Ava, but she wasn’t complaining. Ava wasn’t the only one struggling for control at the moment.

“Are you sure?” Ava asks, not moving her face from it’s spot on the crook of her mate’s neck. Her voice sounded rough even to her own ears and she was close enough to Sara that her lips brushed against her neck with each word. 

Ava wasn’t completely clueless of course. She could feel how this as affecting Sara. Ava felt her breathe hitch as she spoke and her hands had stopped their wandering and were now on Ava’s lower back, applying enough pressure to keep her where she was even though it wasn’t necessary. 

Ava wasn’t going anywhere. At this point, nothing could make her leave short of Sara herself asking her to go. 

It was important for Ava to hear Sara consent though. As intoxicating as her mate’s scent was and as much as Ava wanted to start, she needed Sara’s answer.

Sara nods against her. “Yes. I want- yes.”

“You’ll tell me if you want me to stop?”

Another nod. “Yes.”

“Okay,” Ava mutters against Sara’s neck. “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked that one.
> 
> What did you guys think? Any thoughts? Suggestions?
> 
> I will try to update as soon as I find the time to write. I'm just really swamped with work right now but I promise I haven't forgotten this story and I will finish it. 
> 
> If you guys have any questions or just wanna talk, you can find me on tumblr (nightowl1899)
> 
> Until next time!


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